City Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah, I love it. Heat. Heat. behind you. Heat. Heat.

Welcome to the city of Maricopa's city council meeting. We're glad you're here because your voice matters. If you'd like to speak tonight, please start by filling out a speaker card at the council chambers entrance and turning it in to the city clerk before the meeting begins. On that card, you can let us know if you want to speak on a planned agenda item or during the general call to the public. Please keep in mind that all comments are limited to 3 minutes or less depending on the number of people requesting to speak. Personal attacks and political speeches or threats are inappropriate in [music] this forum and will be grounds for ending a speaker's time at the podium at the discretion of the mayor. We also ask that audience members refrain from applauding or showing disapproval of comments shared by fellow community members as every person who addresses council has the right to speak and not [music] be intimidated. It's important to note that due to Arizona's open meeting law, council members cannot respond or take action on topics not listed on the agenda, but your comments will be heard and entered into the public record. Can't stick around for the full meeting? You can always catch the replay on Facebook or YouTube where this meeting is currently being livereamed. Want more details about tonight's agenda items? Scan the QR code on your screen or visit www.mmaricopa-az.gov/aggenda. Thank you for joining us and getting involved. As a final reminder, please silence your cell phones and electronic [music] devices. The city council meeting will begin shortly.

Welcome. I'd like to welcome you to this evening's regular city council December 2nd, 2025. At this point, I'd like to invite up Pastor Doug Monday from Calvary Church of Maricopa. Hi, Pastor. And he will be giving our invitation after which Council Member Freddy will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Please rise if you're able. [clears throat] Lord, we just thank you for the opportunity to gather tonight in a free society, have our voices heard, and I would pray for the meeting tonight, Lord, the agenda, the council members, the people who are going to speak. God, what a privilege it is to live in a country where we can have a say. So Lord, guide and direct this meeting. and give the council members wisdom as they make decision that affect all of us. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Please join us for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the standy. [clears throat] Thank you, Pastor Monday. And thank you, Council Member Man Freddy. That'll take us to roll call. Vanessa, if you will, please. Council member Gle, present. Council member No, Council Member Leman, here. Council member Marsh here. Council member Manf Freddy here. Vice Mayor Wade present. Mayor Smith here. Madame Mayor, we have a quorum.

Thank you very much. All right, that'll take us to proclamations, acknowledgements, and awards and presentations. We have one item tonight, and that is the fun Maricopa Citizen Leadership Academy graduation. So, I'm going to come down and I invite all of council to join me if you would like to actually congratulate them as well. and we'll get started.

Good evening. Uh uh it is my pleasure to announce that the 26th session of the Maropa Citizen Leadership Academy has officially concluded and we have 21 graduates joining our previous class of over 440 this evening. And uh uh it is a wonderful program that's been going on for many years. And if anyone's interested in learning about the program or attending the citizen leadership academy in the future, I invite you guys to subscribe to our newsletter or go to our website www.mmaricopa-az.govmcla. I'll have all the information for you on how to attend in the future. So without further ado, I'd like to call out the names of the graduating class for the fall 2025 session. And when you guys come up, please grab your certificate from L and then stand up over here for a photo opportunity. Banana Arin Kangle, Jessica Barber, Josephine Hawkins, NECA Hoskins, Ryan James, Santana Johnson, Tholan Johnson, Thomas Lever, Avery Luna, Samuel Mambbo, Julius Moore, Claudio Nunees Jr. John Placer, Cole Placer, Lori Riley, Brian Sandival, Jerome Vita, Lee Walls, Chad Whittle,

Dana Williams, and Pennalin Williams. Don't worry. One more. [applause]

Oh, that's me, right?

That's your chair. Thank you. [laughter]

All right. Before they leave, I want to tell you one thing. I'm excited for your graduation. But how many in the audience and how many up here on council have attended and graduated from Maricopa Citizen Leadership Academy? Look at that. And I can guarantee you not only these people out here up here who are serving, but the people who raised their hands are serving. So find your passion and make it happen because it's a load of fun. But thank you for taking that class. Thank you. All right, that'll move us on to report from the mayor council. Turn it over to you. Yes, council member Marsh.

So, it's been four weeks since our last council meeting on November 4th. On November 5th, I got to speak at the leadership academy to all these wonderful people. And on the 8th Saturday, I drove one smart veteran in my smart car in Maricopa's Veterans Day parade. We had perfect weather for a parade. On the 10th, I met with Chief Goodman on a wide range of topics. There's always something new going on in law enforcement and public safety. On the 11th, Veterans Day, I attended the flag raising at the Veterans Memorial in front of the fieldhouse at Copper Sky. On the 12th, I got a briefing on economic development strategic plan for 2026. On the 13th, Council Member Man Freddy and I hosted over 80 students from Maricopa Wells Middle School here in council chambers and told them all about how city government works and why. And I learned one thing. Man, Freddy is quite the performer and is a very hard act to follow. Then on the 15th, my month of November came to a crashing halt. I was working the Desert Cedars community yard sale, helping a nice woman load some furniture into her car. I tripped on the curb and fell and broke my hip joint. Fire and medical ambulance to Banner Desert Hospital, surgery the next morning, followed by 10 days of rehab, discharged just before Thanksgiving, and continuing rehab at Banner Maricopa for probably six more weeks. So, for the second time in two years, I learned an important lesson. No falling. I'm looking forward to Maricopa this coming Saturday, 5 to 8:00 PM at Copper Sky, be there or be square. And here's wishing you and all Maricopa residents a happy holiday season.

Thank you, Council Member Marsh. Council member Noir.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, just a couple of things and I wrote them down so I wouldn't forget. I got to uh participate in the MAC at Mac Farms uh art show that happened recently which was phenomenal. Uh we just have such amazing artists here in Maricopa and being able to display their work at Mac Farms is uh such a treat and I highly encourage you to go out and see all of the beautiful works of art that are displayed out there. It honestly is uh inspiring. We really truly have some great artists. And then along that line, um on 1213, Desert Sun Performing Arts, which is, uh next weekend, uh is doing their Sugar Plum Tea. So, if you haven't bought your tickets for Sugar Plum Tea, uh it's a great show and I highly recommend checking it out. Um, and then coming up in the new year, our arts community is doing the inside the creative mind lecture series. And it's Saturdays at 3M in the library. And if you need more information about that, um, just let me know. Uh, but it those are great opportunities to learn more about the arts. Um, I was also able to attend the community Thanksgiving potluck that occurred at Maricopa Wells on Thanksgiving and got to help serve and make a turkey for that event and it's such a great opportunity for the people of Maricopa to come together and enjoy Thanksgiving together. This was my first year that I was able to attend it and I will be back every year. Honestly, even if you have your own Thanksgiving going on, um I highly recommend just stopping by and um they had live music and um just like a really upbeat atmosphere. The students at Saddleback Elementary made these cute little placemats for everybody to sit and talked about what they were grateful for and it was really

just a great opportunity for the community to come together. It's not just if you can't afford Thanksgiving, it's it's for everybody to come together and enjoy um the holiday. So, I highly recommend that next year and thank you to Maricopa Pantry for hosting that. Finally, I want to announce uh the Maricopa Women in Government Day at the Capitol that I am organizing with uh Representative Terresa Martinez. I'm really excited to bring this to the women of Maricopa. Um, it will be Friday, January 30th, and we will meet at the Capitol downtown, and you will have the opportunity to tour the Capitol, debate a mock bill on the floor, and get presentations about issues and topics that are important to Arizona, and Representative Martinez has reserved the rooms for us. Uh, there's a limited space availability, so if you are interested, please email me at my city email. Uh, it's anamarie.nicopa- normicopa-az.gov and um which is available online if you go to the city's web page. Um my email's on there. I know that's a lot. [clears throat] Uh but I'm really excited about bringing the women of Maricopa to the capital to learn more about how our government works and to get involved. So that's all I have.

Thank you, Council Member No. Council Member Lurman.

Thank you, Mayor. I also want to wish everyone a happy holidays. I hope you are in the spirit already. Um I just have a few short things. I want to wish the Space Force a happy birthday on December 20th. They were established in 2019. I also want to remind everyone that there is a food drive going on in the community. Um so please bring your donations. Um the locations are City Hall, Copper Sky, the library, community center, police department, Apex, Orbital, ED3, Exceptional Health in Maricopa, Ace Hardware, and Global Water. All donations are very much appreciated. [clears throat] I also want to share that as a result of some regional law enforcement meetings that we've had, Maricopa Police Department was awarded $35,000 in um government of highway safety grants. Um $10,000 went to a DUI task force and the $25,000 um went to traffic laws, enforcing traffic laws. So, we're really grateful for that. I think our relationships and communication has really um had some huge payoffs and so we're appreciative of that. And that is all I had. Mayor, thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Lim. Council member Manf Freddy.

Thank you. Uh to build on what Councilman Lman was just saying, some of those meetings she's had has really impacted the um the enforcement on 347. If you haven't noticed, A DOT sending out those, you know, we stopped somebody doing 80 miles an hour, we did this, and that's that's just education really. Um enforcement of course because the person got pulled over, but then the education part is coming and telling people you can't do that and basically warning people not to do that. So, it's really great the work she's done with the transportation folks um with the enforcement, law enforcement. Um I think Bob over here is giving himself not enough credit. Um, we actually sat with folks and kids. I don't call them kids, young young people. Um, from Maropa Wells Middle School for a trip that they did to city hall and he says that I performed very well and I don't think so. You know, he's an engineer and what they're working on is future cities. So, it's they want to learn about all this cool stuff that's happening. And then I got to tell him that, you know, because he doesn't talk about it himself, but he's one of those original Mer um uh Microsoft guys. So, I tell the the young men and some of the young women out there that were in the audience that without somebody like Bob there, there'd be no Xbox and they're like, "Whoa." And they're like, "He's a hero at that point." You know, so it's amazing stuff. Back on November 17th, I attended an RTAC meeting and RTAC is just rural transportation advisory. And on on there what we do is we fight of course to make sure that um this part of the rural Arizona Maricopa is well represented. And for years we've pushed the 347 and 347 funding. So it was pretty good to you know when it came my time to speak to folks that I wasn't really pushing for extra money for 347 and I can help others like with the 24 and stuff and and money that they need. And then on the 18th, I had a transportation policy

committee with MAG. And MAG is important to us because MAG is the $90 million from Maricopa County. That's part of the 347 funding that everybody says, you know, all the funding. So, we're working to make sure that on that level, the money that we need from MAG is escalated and pushed up closer to the 2026 because that's when we're going to need it so we can get our transportation done and the 347 taken care of. Um uh and then cool cool thing that happened we had I don't know if you remember Jim Rounds was here last meeting and he talked a little bit about the study that they're doing and the report that they're doing. So um um Ghetto and um council member Gtl and I had an opportunity to sit down and have a long conversation about what we want to see as part of the future of economic development in the city. we got to talk about stuff that you could see Jim's eyes like light up and he was like, "Whoa, I I didn't even Yeah, I want to put that in there." And he's talking about not just a um a template economic development thing where you should get more jobs, you should do this, but what the city of Maricopa can do specifically and and steps that we can take so that we can put ourselves in position to bring more jobs and economic vitality to the city of Maricopa. Um, other than that, just a bunch of uh individual meetings and getting together and talking to FE folks and just figuring out where we're going to go for the next five, ten years. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Manf Freddy. Vice Mayor Wade.

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate it. That's been a pretty busy week or or two weeks for myself. In November, the In November, I went to the 10 10 Toes Down and 10 toes up cancer walk. Uh it was very well done. It was very well put together. Uh there's a lot of kids, a lot of people were there. A lot of opportunity to get tested for um mamograms and for um prostate [laughter] Yeah. prostate cancer. So, it was really well done. Um really provided for the community. Uh I walked with them with the [clears throat] folks there for for the uh uh for the event that took a couple rounds around the park for the for the event and then also was a participant in the um parade for the veterans on last Thursday. We attended the senior day or lunch and learn where we talked about trafficking or where we talked about title fraud and title fraud is such an easy thing to do. It's so easy to do that it's becoming a phenomenon. And I encourage everybody to anyone who owns a home, particularly if you have a home that has a high equity value, to make sure that you find out if any of your documents are being changed. And if they are, you can address it and at least pay attention to it. Keep your eye on it in case uh someone tries to u purchase a home on you or or do an equity loan on a property that's not your property. Coming up, I'm going to be attending the Sugar Plum Tea as a narrator. I'm looking very much forward to that. That's going to be great. And I hope that uh I hope that you do come there. The events will happen on 12 and 4. And so you have plenty of time to come out.

Now, there is a little competition between with the Maricopa, but uh that's okay. You still can come in and have a good time with it. That's it. Other than the Maropa, I mentioned it already, but that's it. Uh that I have. There you go. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Yes. Thank you, Vice Mayor Wade. All right. So, this past few weeks, um I had the luxury of going to a state championship for swimmers. Both of our high schools made it into the state championships. I have never been to a state championship for swimming. I have no idea exactly what I was watching. I tried to keep up. I was telling James Singleton, "Next time I have to sit next to him so he can help me figure out what's going on." But it was fascinating. I was there on day one and we had some really good results. You guys, we have great athletes in the city of Maricopa. It's pretty phenomenal. But in regards to the swim teams on our Maricopa High School boys team, placed 12th of 32 schools. That's pretty awesome. And specifically, Holden Garrick places second in the 200 free and the and fifth in the 500 free. Now, don't ask me what those are because I just watched and I have no idea, but I think it's pretty outstanding.

[clears throat]

Then we had at Desert um Sunrise High School Chloe Armstrong who meddled in two events by placing second in the 100 backstroke and fourth in the butterfly. And so this is after two days of battling it out with 32 other schools. Pretty exciting. I just want to end that with the future of MUSD swim teams is promising and exciting as with many of our other high school sports. So pretty thrilling for me. Um, next time I just have to sit next to James. Um, the next thing was that I attended the November A DOT state transportation board meeting and that was really important because part of their conversation a week earlier was how do they need to change the processes to consider all elements of what's important to transportation? And as you know, Maricopa was successful getting the 347 in the five-year plan in June. And we have lots of lessons learned. So, as I watched the work session, I came up with a list of about seven things that they were entirely missing. Growth being one of them. That growth is really important and they don't take that into consideration when determining where the funds go for transportation. So, I spoke in front of them, shared those seven elements and then sent it to all the board members so they had it so that they could continue that dialogue. And then also of course I had to bring up the fact that we need to always encourage ADOT to keep moving forward on this 347 project. They've been doing a great job. They've already gone out for bid. Sometime in January they should be awarding the bid and then sometime after that we'll see a new timeline for when construction might start and various other elements. So, they're doing a fabulous job moving forward. And I think council member Manf Freddy shared last time. They've appointed the Broadway curve team to be our project team, which is phenomenal.

Um, and so just all the encouragement that we can continue to give the state transportation board on continuing to move this forward. Then Katie and myself, Katie is our intergov. We were invited by Senator Farnsworth to give a presentation that actually Council Member Man Freddy and I gave at the rural transportation summit to a large group of state um people, state leaders and help them understand what the city of Maricopa had to go through to get 347 on the five-year plan. And so we gave that same presentation. They had a ton of questions after that. And um Senator Farnsworth uh just asked me for a quote. He's putting together a document that basically talks about how important it is for the state to start to realize how funding transportation is critical. And so I love Senator Farnsworth for his passion in transportation and we had a great time giving that presentation. And then today um our city manager Bidder and again Katie our intergov and myself went to Senator Kelly's office and were able to talk about the flood plane issue that we have here and as you know you've heard us say that the flood plane impacts our business park where we have all those jobs and we're working hard to try and figure out how to solve that. But we can use his help and we can use all senators help and all of our Congress folks help as well. So we plan on meeting with many of them in December. But this conversation at Senator Kelly's office was phenomenal. They took lots of notes on the flood plane and our city manager did a great job explaining all the details. And then we also talked about I1 because I1 is one of those freeway systems that is hugely going to benefit the city of Maricopa. Um and it's been stalled at

tier one for a couple years now and we asked him his office to get this moving and we gave him some suggestions on how that could happen. So great meetings with a lot of wonderful leaders and just a lot of success at our high schools as well in the sports. So that is your report from the mayor and that turns us Oh yes yes yes vice mayor Wade. He has one more.

Sorry I missed something that's very important. Uh there is a young lady by the name of analyst Analise Alexander. She's a local high school student. She'll be uh accepting a leadership award from the governor tomorrow and I'm going to attend. and they invited me to come along with them and I'm going to attend which proves we we we look out for our community. The governor's award phenomenal and I invited her to the January 20th city council. So, you'll get a chance to meet her and she'll bring her award. Pretty fun times. Okay, that will take us to the city manager report.

Thank you, Madame [clears throat] Mayor, members of the council. Um decided to switch things up and have a PowerPoint presentation for you tonight. It'll be 734 slides. So, city just kidding. Um, just a few slides and and really hoping to talk about a couple of topics that that pop up a lot in our community and that are important for for our community to understand as well. So, the first of those as we get into it will be traffic management. So, five years ago when we look at the city of Maricopa, we had a grand total of 17 traffic signals that we operated and now we have 33 and we're working on four more that are adding. And so you look at the the scope and and the size of of how our traffic operations have changed in just five years and it's doubled. And what does that mean? Well, we've added a traffic engineer. We've uh added positions for our operators and and finding ways to get more people connected to this data that is so important to make the work flow, make the traffic flow. So the the picture on this is actually the intersection right outside of city hall here. is White and Parker and Bolan Road as that was was being widened and uh and putting a traffic signal in there. So, just a good example of of how we continuously try to improve our roadways, not just adding signals to add signals. That's certainly not something that that we want to do, but signals bring added efficiency when they're timed properly. And so, that brings us to the to the second slide. And the biggest concern and question we always have is on John Wayne Parkway. And holy cow, it's busy. We all know, right? We drive it on a daily basis and understand that, you know, at times we are going to face delays. And when there are cars going through from east to west and there are cars turning left and there are cars making U-turn movements, all of those disrupt that north and southbound flow. So, it's almost impossible to have a perfectly synced light when there's

high traffic conditions for us to make every single light. when there's not a lot of traffic, we're more likely to hit all the green lights, so to speak. But we've continuously adjusted timing and we will continuously look at that and continuously try to improve that. We use data. We we collect um traffic counts and look at what time of day vehicles are coming through here. We've even looked at artificial intelligence to help predict what times we're going to see the highest amount of traffic and then implement a new signal timing plan based off of that data. And so all of those things were open to to solutions and continuously try new things as a way of improving. It is never going to be perfect because every condition is different than the the day before, the hour before or the next day. And so it's a constant um adjustment based off of what we can see and the best facts that we have at any given time. We also have done other things like efficiency improvements. And so when you look at the Smith, Inky and 347 intersection, that's our busiest of the day. We have well over 60,000 vehicles that pass through that intersection every day. When we added that northbound um continuous flow right turn lane, that has helped tremendously on the backup on Smith Inky that's heading west and going north on onto 347 in that morning rush hour in particular. So, we've seen an improvement there. We've seen some improvements with how those those signals are timed in terms of left turn movements and when those come before or after, sometimes at the same time. And so we've we've looked at those to make efficiency improvements to improve that intersection. Another thing that we've got starting in the new year, if you're familiar with the cobblestone cobblestone farms traffic signal, that's by the Chase Bank. Right now, it only has three legs. So, it's the northbound, southbound, and then the westbound onto Co South Cobblestone Farms Road. What we're starting in the new year is actually that fourth leg. So, the fourth

part of that intersection to go over towards Freddy's and Starbucks and Rosatis and all those areas over there. Well, why is that important? If you're right now heading southbound into our community and you want to go to Starbucks, you have to go through the Smith, Inc. intersection and then turn left or flip a U-turn. Some people do that despite there being a no U-turn sign. Um, so you can get a ticket for that. But, um, all of that puts more traffic in the busiest intersection that we have in town. So, if we can create a new driveway, for example, at that South Cobblestone Farms light that goes onto what is the Dignity Health property and then south to Freddy's CVS to Starbucks, that creates a better traffic improvement for the Smith, Inky, and 347 light. It also improves general traffic on 347 because it doesn't create any more delay than what already exists, but it gets cars where they're trying to go in a more efficient way. And so those are kind of some of the the uh improvements. Also, green road bypass, we continue to work on finding ways to get people to their destinations faster through new routes. And so that's part of the commuting corridors discussion where we're working with our neighbors on the Hila River Indian community or the Octane Indian community and continuously trying to develop some of these roads that will bring new bridges that will bring new roads and and everything to help make commuting easier. That's part of our capital improvement plan. If we could go to the next slide. So to that point, what are some of those so further upcoming plans? Well, there are obviously requests coming in now as we're already in in budget season. It's hard for people to believe that when we start a budget in July, on July 1st, when we start a new fiscal year, that that is almost a year-long process for us as we're preparing and submitting and reviewing requests to try and find the best balance for our tax resources. And so, those operational and capital requests have started coming in and

we're reviewing those to ensure that we're providing the most efficient use of those dollars. Some of those include optimization for our signal timing and for the replacement of aging equipment that you know we received as part of taking over the jurisdiction of of John Wayne Parkway within our city limits. But some of those signals and the equipment within the signals are older than the city itself as as it relates to our incorporation date. And so some of those things need to be replaced. And as we we find those with our signal technicians and as we have failures, we try to do our best to to piece it together and and we're going to have some replacements. So all of those things planned in in future fiscal years, additional traffic signals to improve flow, obviously continued data collection with traffic counts, with working with artificial intelligence, having potentially a future traffic management center like shown in the picture. Uh this is actually a dot so you can see that at the top. But you can manage a whole bunch of of sites at the same time by by simply monitoring what where the traffic is flowing and trying to understand where any hang-ups may be and then adjust. And then finally obviously the new roads, widened roads, new bridges etc that are coming as part of our future CIP. So that's it on on traffic management. Another thing is is somewhat related as it relates to our growth and our growth management. Well, we have recently and and will continue to update our what's new maricopa.com website. And one of the things that we've just added to this is a section particularly for the commercial projects that's called in review. So it's highlighted on this image. Um, so as you click commercial projects and and click in review, what you'll actually see are three projects today that are listed that are currently being reviewed by our city staff. So these are site plan reviews or their building permits or whatever else it may be that is in at that time. You could find that here. Well, why are we doing

this and what does this mean and what's the purpose? Well, we want to be the best organization that we can be. We want the most comments so that we can receive the best product to our community and provide that when when we have clean free car wash or black rock coffee. If you have comments, if you have suggestions, we want to hear them because that can improve our ultimate project. And so if you go to the next slide, um this is just an example. As you click through one of those, you can see um some contact information on there and then you can even see some of those plans. So for example, the landscape plan or the color elevations. Again, we are under no belief that we are the smartest people in the world. We believe that everyone has something to add and and we want to hear it. And so, if we can enhance that transparency, if we can get better results because of your comments, by all means, submit those comments and provide whatever thoughts you have on how we might be able to approve and and how we can incorporate that into that uh ultimate project. And so, certainly encourage people to check out what's newmaricopa.com as well. We'll continue to update that. There will be some new rollouts coming in in the next few months as it relates to the platform itself and just really excited to see all the great things our our staff and community is accomplishing. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you, city manager. [clears throat] All right, that'll take us to the call to the public tonight. I do have four speaker cards and I will be giving you three minutes each and um I'm going to first invite up Brad Flet.

Hello.

My name is Brad Flet. I'm a CEO of Earth Month Network here in Maricopa. I'm appearing especially tonight as an indiv resident of Maricopa and I'm here to speak about the water issue uh within the city. You may recall that I stood before you in May and I communicated some concerns about our water expounding to the uh disreputable point that our water our potable water is not a political issue but is a human right. You may be aware that on August 27th that global water received a positive ecoli test. Uh it's a waterbornne pathogen, a health concern making water non-pottable for both humans and for pets. Now many in the community as well as myself as one being affected have a colossal amount of displeasure within the approach, means and manner in which the incident was handled then and even to today. This displeasure is placed upon Santa Cruz Water Company, Global Water Resources, and unfortunately with this city of Maricopa, this is our home. Many people here tonight in this chambers and in the public may not even know if they were affected by the E.coli. Even our returning winter residents, however, the harm it caused is still ongoing. Don't even know that. How about you and your families? Were you affected? Various ones had mild effects. Others went to the doctor. Others were hospitalized. And we still have some today that are seriously affected. As such, a class action lawsuit in the form of a state law claim has been filed upon Global Water Resources, Santa Cruz Water Company. For further information, contact council Jeffrey M. Thrashberger. That's G E O F F R E Y M T R A C H T N B

E R G with Fredal Richardson PC. Phone number is 4805401341. Thank you to all. Good health and stay safe.

All right, our next person I'd like to invite up is Peg Chapidos. Good evening, Mayor Council. I want to share some good news with you. This past Saturday, we held the fifth annual Maricopa Main Street Marketplace at Leading Edge Academy. We had well over five to 600 people attend, 60 artisans, booths indoors and out, and a lot of people spent money here in Maricopa this past weekend. So, I wanted to share that. I also want to invite the public to two upcoming events. Um, actually five upcoming events. On Saturday the 13th, the Maricopa Music Circle and Maricopa Chorus will be doing their annual winter concert. 3 PM out at the A Center on Smith Inc. Uh, if you've never been, I highly encourage you to go. It's a fantastic afternoon of music and singing and it's just it's wonderful. And they have a little reception afterwards and you can see the art that Council Member Noah was talking about. Also, I want to expound a little bit on the Maricopa Arts Council inside the creative mind series. This time in 2026, their theme is creativity in life at large. There are four speakers that are slated. The first one is going to be Saturday, January 10th, and that's going to be Kevin Garon. He is a writer and publisher of literature that appeals to middle school children. On Saturday the 24th, yours truly is going to be talking about how I create tabletop and board games. On Saturday, February 2nd, Terry Oldfield, who is uh a stained glass specialist and also a bag piper. If you've ever seen our honor guard do any of the military stuff, you probably have seen Terry play. And then on Saturday, February 28th, Steve Portray, who is a phenomenal wood turner. Um, his wife Cynthia sits on the cultural affairs and arts committee and she's a weaver. But

if you really want to find out more about the wealth of talent we have here, I encourage you to come to the Maricopa Library 3 PM in the Redwood Room and admission is free. There's also a little reception and you'll learn a great deal about the wealth of talent we have here. So, thank you.

Thank you. I 100% support all of that. We do have phenomenal artists just like we have phenomenal athletes in the city of Maricopa. The next person I'd like to invite up is Dana Williams. Hello everyone. How are you? Uh, I just want to say first of all that this class was a very informative and it was a very good class to take to find out what's going on in Maricopa. I found out things about my city I had no idea. [laughter] So, I wanted to say that. Thank you for that. I also wanted to um tell you guys about my business and uh some some some people had a chance to taste my desserts. I brought them to the academy uh for the five weeks. So, uh, it's Heavenly Cheesecakes and Catering Company or Heavenly Cakes by Dana. I will be at Maricopa. So, I'm honored to be a part of, uh, Maricopa and, uh, that woman's at the capital you were talking about and economic development is very important. So, I think that good businesses are part of economic development. So, I just want to say thank you and that I love this city.

Thank you.

That's it. Bye. All right, the next person is Larissa Anderson and Pastor David. Where? Lisa, thank you. That was a workout. Mayor Nancy Smith and Vice Mayor Henry Raid and to the council members. This is my my cute husband um behind me. Y'all know him already. He praising junk. So, um I wanted to just come to announce which is we do it we've been doing it for six years, but rocking the stocking and rocking what rocking the stocking is is an event that the city has definitely impacted um in who we can serve. But it started in 2020 when uh COVID began and we had no way to serve the community. So we made up a way and we created a drive-thru Christmas party where we got a DJ DJ Claus and played some music and we stuffed stockings through car windows. And we didn't realize the need at the time, but the need was so great. Vice Mayor Henry can attest to this. The lines were down. We we needed people to help with traffic. And so we know everybody who has a need, they're not going to say, they don't look like they need. Everybody who has a need doesn't look like they have a need. And everybody who has a need is not going to say it. And so we make whatever they need available for whoever needs it. And so this year we are doing it on Thursday, December 18th from 4:00 to 7:00. I cannot um actually name the entity that donated their parking lot for us because this is as you all know although B community church is organizing it we don't we're not taking taking claim to it. This is for the

community by the community and we want to keep it that way. And so the location this year is the corner of Honeyut and Porter behind the Circle K. And y'all probably already know where that is, but we've got several large um donors this year, which we are so grateful to God for. We're going to keep serving until the last candy cane is gone. And so it's open to anybody who wants to come. Um this is something that is near and dear to my heart specifically because having worked in the education system, I understand that there are, you know, people who don't have, they just flat out don't have. And so, if we can put a smile on their face, but also be a resource to them, that's what we're going to do. And so, we're inviting businesses, organizations to come set up a booth, there's no cost to you to do it, except for what you donate. You donate 150 items or more. When you're out, you're out. When we're out, we're out, right? But we're going to serve as many people as we possibly can. You can do way more than that, of course, if you want to. Um, and we just want to make sure that the city is taken care of this time and I know this year the need is greater probably than it has ever been because of the size of the city. When the size grows, the need grows and we just want to come together as a community to meet it.

So, we hope you can join us. All right, time is up. We have flyers and cards for anybody who wants to take it to their church or school or whatever. Yes, absolutely. Thank you very much. That is all the speaker cards that I have. Would anyone else in the audience like to approach the podium and have three minutes? All right, seeing no one, I will close the call to the public. Oh, do I have Oh, should have known. Rich is here. He's gonna talk. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, uh, vice mayor and councel already.

I'll get you on a county one. Don't you worry. Um, actually, um, Vice Mayor Wade reminded me of something about uh, protecting your title. So, I don't know how many people here know that Penel County actually has two different styles. They have one called PAL, which stands for parcel alert list. It's free of charge. You come into the county uh, county office here in Maricopa. You fill out a form. Bring your um driver's license. If you have a deed, uh not a deed, if you have a trust, you need to bring your trust in and it protects your title. What it does is is that you'll get a email and a phone call if somebody's trying to steal your your title. Then we also have one through our recorder's office. Again, free of charge. That one has to be done online. So, you can go on the county website and get that. So, I just wanted to remind because Mr. Wade, thank you for reminding me that uh it's been going on especially with our seniors. They're actually it's becoming very very unfortunately popular to steal people's deeds and uh it's uh through the through the county and uh actually the sheriff also reminded me about it because they've been getting a lot of notifications. So, please come into our county office. It's free of charge. Uh how many people have their titles protected? not enough of you. So, please come into our office here in the county uh in Maricopa and fill it out and get your title. Like I said, there's two ways of doing it. So, and if you need help, the girls at the counter will take care of you. Okay. Thank you.

Are they both equal both ways? Uh yeah, they they do the same thing, just that it double protection. It was just a newer program that they came out with. So, Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks. All right. Last chance. Anyone else? All right, I will close up. Oh, come along. Yep.

Give us your name and I'll give you three minutes.

Yes. My name is Samuel and last name is Mambbo. And I'm honored to be here tonight with my lovely, beautiful wife, Esther B. Thank you, Mayor Nancy Smith and Vice Mayor Hen White and all the council members and everybody else, the city manager and your team city attorney and everybody else in the congregation here. First of all, thank you so much because of the school that we went uh for the Marikopa Leadership Academy. We learned a lot and uh I have two daughters or we have two daughters, me and my wife. One is a senior in Maricopa High School. is a freshman in Marikopa High School as well. Originally from Kenya, now we are here. We have some businesses here. We have transportation business. We have real estate and as well as healthcare business. We are lovely and we love Maropa to call it our home. And by seeing us here as well, you can see the diversity that Marikopa city is having and we are praying for this to continue. And we are honored here tonight to give for giving us this opportunity for a place like the city of Marikopa where we can call it home. So city of Maricopa is our home and the home for my family as well. Thank you so much for that.

Appreciate that. Thank you very much. All right, last chance. Anyone else? All right, I will close the call to the public. It's messing over here. Uh that'll take us to the consent agenda. At this time we have consent agenda items 7.1 through 7.9 nine. I have zero speaker cards. And so council, do you have any questions, comments on the consent agenda items? I I Yes, council member.

Thank you, mayor. I just want to make sure that everyone's aware that 7.1 is cancelling some of the meetings. I we have a lot of familiar faces that show up, which I love that you show up every uh meeting, but I don't think sometimes you could miss that a meeting was canceled. So, I definitely want to point out that you should check out 7.1 um and don't show up if we're not showing up because that would be super boring. So, [laughter] very good. Thank you very much. Any other additional comments, questions? Do I have a motion? Motion.

So, moved by Council Member Man Freddy, seconded by Council Member Marsh. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Very good. That'll take us to the regular agenda items. Our first item is 8.1, which is an ordinance talking about amendment to health and safety, which is title nine. And Rick Williams is giving our presentation. Thank you, Mayor Councel. Uh just a couple of housekeeping items while while they bring the presentation up. Uh there are three ordinances associated with this uh 15 16 and 17. Uh for the purpose of our conversation, I'm going to combine them all into one. Okay.

Uh but we will need three separate actions on them once we get to the end. Gotcha.

Uh one other item as we as we get into this uh for the purposes of the discussion to kind of uh clarify a little I've broken them into uh the different amendments into three categories. And that would be revisions to the um to the ordinances themselves um u legislative matters and then new text that we've added in and we'll move through it in that direction. Just makes the conversation a little clearer, a little easier. So that being said, uh this evening we're here before you tonight to present three different ordinances making significant changes to the u Maricopa City Code. And we do these for uh several different reasons, but more than importantly, it brings the current code into compliance with ARS requirements. Uh it updates multiple section, gives us a chance to you know uh bring them into consistency uh with con uh current development trends and uh standards and occasionally we do run into some scrier errors that are identified by the code. So it's a good opportunity. So, as I said, we would break it into the three different uh versions here. And I'm going to start with the text revisions. Um, and these different sections are are essentially moving things around, cleaning items up or just clarifiation purposes. Uh, section 1730, recreation and tot requirements. I'm not going to read through this word for word, but essentially what it does, what we've done is moved it from one section in a code to the other. Uh with respect to the mixeduse heritage overlay development standards, um there is a twocar covered requirement. Y'all may be familiar with our ready set build program that we brought back before y'all. I believe it was last year. Uh if you recall, those do not have garages associated with those ready set build pro. So we had a contradictory there. We were putting it in but requiring

something that we weren't offering with it. So we cleaned that up. Um and the same with the uh 1880 uh the screening requirements we just codified that within our code to make it clear that there are certain screening requirements with respect to mechanical equipment SCES cabinets and things of that nature. With respect to the group homes, uh the separation requirement between the two types of group homes was a little bit foggy, uh not crystal clear, and so we just went in and add a little additional text to make sure that was not confused. Uh finally, we added uh single room occupants and food court trucks to the list of terms and definitions uh in that section. And then finally, in section 1820, we clarified seasonal sales, which are the Christmas trees, the fireworks, the pumpkin uh patch um establishments as temporary use permits instead of um um um seasonal sale um I'm sorry, um special event sales. And uh we also increase the allowable signage for those uh businesses. So, moving into uh legislative items, uh Arizona House Bill 2 2447 was passed in the legislation on March 31st, 2025. It revised section 9-549 essentially relating to administrative review and approval. The bill mandates that the legislative body of a city or town shall by ordinance authorize administrative personnel to review and approve site plans, development plans, land divisions, lot line adjustments, lot ties, preliminary plats, final plats, and plat amendments uh without a public hearing. Additionally, it also mandated that cities um uh allow at risk submitts for

preliminary grading and drainage work. and it also the ability to um submit for expedited review. The two uh bullet point items that you see on the screen right there, the city is already currently engaged in. Uh so that's not a part of this um amendment before you this evening. So with respect to the ARS compliance, um folks, I've broke these down into again two different reasons. So, the the four different sections you see on here essentially remove the preliminary plat, the final plat um from the city council decision- making um properties and as well as the planning and zoning commission functions. Um yeah, I got both of those on and those are concurrently in order there. And you can see that they are also in section 17 and 18 both of uh one is our subdivision regulations. The other is is the u zoning ordinance of the city code. With respect to those powers um in compliance with ARS 2447, we've now taken those and we've u uh made those decision powers with the development services director. We've added the appeals for preliminary and final plats to the hearing officer section of the zoning ordinance. And we've also placed the preliminary plat decision-making powers with the zoning administrator as well. Those those four different or actually it would be eight different amendments bring us into uh conformance with the state statute 2447. With respect to new text section 810 uh 015 uh introduces alley maintenance requirements uh and the responsible party for keeping those in a good

maintained order and where the perimeters of that land. Uh 1840 this provision requires commercial development within a minimum with a minimum of 50,000 square feet to to incorporate a pedestrianoriented form of art into their development. Exciting stuff. Section 1875, the mixeduse heritage overlay district. This adds the food court requirements to uh the heritage overlay uh and also um establish it as a permitted use in that section. 18-120 food truck courts creates a new section in the Maricopa code establishing not only zoning requirements for the c for the food trucks but also development standards for it in the mixeduse heritage uh station as well. And finally, uh, and actually this is a little repetitive. I apologize for that, but we added the single room occupant and the food truck court list to the terms of definitions. Uh, in the ordinance, I've outlined here uh, the the require or the amendments before you this evening meet several objectives of the U general plan and I've outlined those in front of you this evening. Uh just make a note of the notification requirements. On September 8th, we posted this on our city website. Uh October 9th, we ran a newspaper article in the Cassag Grand Dispatch. Uh 27th of October, uh we had a first planning and zoning commission meeting on this. And uh I would just point out that at this point, mayor council, I have had no public um comment received to date from any of the outreach opportunities we've put out there. Uh as I stated, by three separate actions, staff recommends mayor and council concur with the planning commission and approve uh the three different ordinances before you this

evening. Uh that concludes my presentation, ma'am. Uh I'll be happy to answer any questions that uh mayor or council may have. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Council Member Man Freddy, I believe you had some statements um specifically regarding HB 2447.

Nothing I can say now. I had some statements, but I'll calm them down a little bit. So HB 2447 is um basically a bill which is trying to take away some of the things that we do in the city of Maricopa. not trying. It mandates it does. I mean, it's pretty simple. In response to 2447, um, which, as we mentioned earlier, became law in March, the city of Maricopa's has to required to update our regulations to stay in compliance. Um, not doing so would be not a good thing for the city of Maricopa. Um, I've been talking about the state and local control for years now and how they will whittle away local control as much as they can when they can. Um Rich actually um Supervisor Vidiello um actually spoke about it a couple about a month or two ago here right here at the dis and he at the

podium

podium and he talked a little bit about it and so basically you know what we want to do is make sure that the city is getting what they want right and and that all the um the regulations are being followed. Um, I know there's some worry that this takes final plat approval away from the city council. It takes um some other stuff away from um planning and zoning. And people are worried that does that does dilute um what we're doing here in the city of Maricopa. But we're going to have to have faith and courage to understand that our um zoning our folks in charge and and our um planning department are going to make sure that we're seeing what we want as a council and we're giving direction. The stated goal of this is simple. They want to increase the speed, efficiency, and development process while they believe respecting local control. And I believe it's more that they want to take away local control as much as they can. This change moved the routine stuff like code compliance decisions um and planning and zoning stuff and city council decisions away and basically hopefully makes it a little bit quicker. You know, the funny part is they at the state level they treat every city the same and not every city's the same. We're different than Scottsdale, different than Tucson, much different than Phoenix, and Heila River, Heila Bend is much different than Maricopa and etc, etc. So, every city's different. So, I don't like the fact it's a boilerplate thing. But the good news is Maricopa is already ahead of the curve in some of the areas of the law, like allowing at risk submitts um for so they can get started before they even get their approvals for drainage work and such. And to comply with 2447, these amendments are basically required.

And I asked the question, what happens if we say no? And I was told state funding might go away. We might get sued a little bit by the legislators and things like that. So, you know, although we have to vote for it, doesn't mean we have to vote for it happily.

Thank you very much. I had a couple concerns um that I wanted to share with you in regards to taking some action. [clears throat] I had the privilege of being able to sit with two of our legislators for lunch with other mayors from their district and we talked specifically about this item. I gave them three examples as you may know. One great example in which [clears throat] staff and residents contributed to is Santa Rosa Springs right just east of there our new apartments and they originally were going to put the three-story apartments right up against the homes that are there in Santa Rosa and this ability to review plats and [cough and clears throat] excuse me um plans allowed for the discussion both on the staff side and on the resident side to say, "I live in one of those homes. I don't want the three-story buildings there." And as a great result, they were really wonderful neighbors. And the developers moved the three-story buildings out to the front on Porter. They put parking up against where the houses are. That's just one example that I gave to our legislators. [clears throat] And they asked me what they could do about it once they now realize what kind of an impact it has. [clears throat] I'm so sorry. And I said, can you reverse the decision? That would be great. And however, they didn't think that that was possible. They were going to go back and study and look and see if there's anything else that they can do. But what I love about our city is that our staff and what the city manager mentioned earlier is the fact that they are putting on what's new Maricopa the opportunity for all of us including PNZ including city council and all residents to review what's happening and what's being currently reviewed by our staff. Do I have that right Rick?

That is correct ma'am. Very good. Um and so you mentioned commercial Ben. Will we also have that for apartments and housing as well? Yeah. Yeah. It's just much more complex. So when you have a major,

we'll work our way toward it. But and then my last question related to that is I want people to walk away. So how let's just talk about it's available now for commercial. How do they provide that input back to you in a timely manner while you're reviewing and making those decisions? How do they do that? Again, if Thanks, Madam Mayor. If you go on to the what's new maropa and see something on there or if you see a sign on a site there's always a way listed for contact on the what's new maricopa website there is a email address provided and anyone of our team members can get those emails from the what's new maricopa website or if there is a sign on the or sorry if there is a sign at the actual site where something is occurring perfect

then that contact information would be on there as well.

Perfect. So residents, if you see or even businesses, if you see an orange sign go up or you understand something new is coming to a property near you, go to what's new Maricopa, see what's happening, see if you have any concerns, and share it with our staff. That right now is what we can do in order to provide your ability to have input into this specific change. You know, if I had my way, my legislators would come back and say, "Okay, we are going to reverse it, Mayor Smith." But I don't think that's going to happen, but maybe they can find a workaround for that. Um, and let me see, that was the end of my questions, additional comments, questions. Yes, Council Member Ghetto.

Um, my question actually revolves around 8.2 if it would be appropriate to address that one since we're considering all these together. Madame Mayor. So, um, Derek, I Rick, I mean, we we had a whole bunch of of, uh, information to sift through over those these last several days. And so, trying to be very very careful about this. Maybe I'm missing something or misunderstanding something, but in the PDF document for 8.2, this will be the exhibit C, the final text PDF version of what's being proposed here tonight. If I understand correctly, we are looking at compliance where city council and uh our zoning commission um no longer need to give their approvals for for certain things. So, under section uh 17.20.06, the final plat improvement plan approval, uh in that opening paragraph there, it seems to already or still con still still include city council being part of that process. So, I don't know if that's an oversight on the final or if I'm misunderstanding that paragraph. I could read that to us if we need it read. But,

Madame Mayor, council members, it clearly sir is an oversight and I'll make that change uh as soon as we get back to the office in the morning. Um, yeah, there was a lot of information, a lot of lot of 180 pages I think with total. It was great reading material. Thank you. [laughter] Um, so yeah, I would that's an oversight and we'll correct that first thing in the morning. Thank you very much. And that's really the only question or comment I had on that. Very good. Thank you, Council Member Ghetto. Yes, Council Member No.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you. And I echo what um, Council Member Ghetto said. It was a lot of reading and I also watched the zoning commission meeting where that some of this was discussed. Uh I just think it's important um and it's unfortunate I think for you and the folks in development services that there's going to be a lot of pressure on you now because um you have to review these and you um we're taking it away from the council and we're taking it away from planning and zoning and so it's really going to lie at the feet of development services and so um I think it's really important that development services um takes that responsibility seriously and make sure you're dotting eyes and crossing tees and really thinking about what the community would think about um because you're not going to have the benefit of the robust community feedback that you had before. I hope everybody takes the mayor's suggestion and I hope everybody continues to ask for information and look at orange signs and read them and provide input, but we know people get busy and we know that just, you know, it's a lot to ask of our community since we're taking away this formal procedure because we have to based on the law. But I just um I feel bad for development services in in some respect, but I'm asking you and imploring that you really um you know put special eyes and um give a lot of due diligence to this as we go forward. So

thank you. Uh if I could just say that um you know sometimes when legislation comes along like this or you're you're forced essentially forced to make changes that you didn't necessarily want to make. Um it creates an opportunity to take a good look at yourself, you know, and that's the way we're and my me and my team are focusing on this is that we have to get better, you know. So it's it's an internal audit of the things that we do and and how we can approach our processes and make them even stronger, make them tighter and make them more compact so that we don't miss things going. So, you know, we're we're as a as a team, we're disappointed. Um, but we're up to the challenge and and we're looking forward to it and we'll continue to find ways to be more transparent, you know, and be more informative in the community and we'll look for every opportunity that we can find to do that.

Madame Mayor, if I may as well. Yes, please. This doesn't also it doesn't also take away the um sometimes ability for us to have neighborhood meetings and it doesn't take away requirement for mailing. So there are additional ways that are still possible to inform um neighboring areas and for those people to provide comments. We don't want to make it sound like the only way to to provide comment is through what's new Maricopa or an email. We're just trying to provide all opportunities and so any way that we can get those we'd certainly welcome them. Thank you for that clarification. That's important. Yes, Council Marsh.

In order to avoid getting decisions made one after another behind a curtain, I'm thinking the Wizard of Oz. Um, could we have a a procedure in our city where the PLA decisions continue to be presented to PNZ and council as a courtesy and open for discussion? Yeah. Um, council member, I would defer to Yeah. So, we spent a lot of time going back to the intent of the legislature and I know we think of a public hearing as a very specific process. They were I would they should have chose different language because the intent was there was no public process.

Good. So, yeah, we we dug into that to see if there was some way we could still go through this. And I think it's a great question. PNZ had the same question. I brought it up. Council member Marsh and I know probably others brought it up. Thank you for digging into that. Um it's unfortunate because

Katie as well Katie was involved with the legislative intent and going back to all the hearings and you know what was actually said and it was that we do what's being proposed tonight and it doesn't go to we can report on it afterward but we can't make it a condition of approval. One last thing that I just realized in my notes. I wanted to give um praise. The whole team did a fantastic job on your staff, but the food court from DA. Did I say that right? I always mess up her name. Da Castillo, our project coordinator.

Talk a little bit about that because she put a lot of energy into finding a way to get this to happen in the heritage district. Well, uh, mayor, council members, I would just first I would say is that I'm just the messenger on this one. Um, but she did all the the leg work. She did all the research on it. She put together the the the different provisions that are contained within it uh with within the ordinance. Uh, she brought those to Rudy and myself. We sat down, we we looked at them as a team. We put them back together, made res uh recommendations. She took it back and she took it from A to Z. And um it's it's a it's a I think a really good starting point start. Yes.

You know, we don't we don't know what to quite expect yet, but we've built provisions or she's built provisions in there for different types of scenarios. um wouldn't surprise me to see us amend that maybe a little bit down the road someplace, but it's a wonderful place and a wonderful reference for a starting point. And I think it's going to be very, we've had numerous people already um inquire as to when it's going to be available, when can we start, and I think we'll see possibly, you know, very shortterm results on that as far as folks taking advantage of it. Very good. I'm excited. She did a great job. I was really impressed by that.

All right. Okay. Any additional comments, questions? All right. Let's go back to item 8.2, ordinance 2516. Do I have a motion to approve? If I may. So, moved by Council Member Lman with an amendment. Oh, yes. Thank you very much, Council Member G. Make a motion that we approve as written with the exception or with the correction to paragraph 17.20.06 to remove city council in that final review process. Very good. Thank you, Council Member Ghetto. So moved by Council Member Ghetto, seconded by Council Member Lurman. Any additional questions on 8.2? Yes, we just need to do 8.1 as well. Oh, did I skip one? This was 8.2.

Well, we're on 8.2. Have no fear. [clears throat] All right. Any additional questions on 8.2? Nope. All right. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Let's go back to 8.1. And do I have a motion to approve 8.1? So moved. So moved by Council Member Ghetto, seconded by Council Member Marsh. Any additional questions on 8.1. All right, seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. That'll take us to item 8.3. Do I have a motion on 8.3? Motion from Vice Mayor Wade. Do I have a second? Second.

Seconded by Council Member Marsh. Do I have any additional questions, comments? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Very good. Thank you, Rick. Thank you, ma'am. All right, that takes us to the next item, which I think is exciting as well. Item 8.4. This is on fee reductions, and David McLeas will be giving us our presentation. I have zero speaker cards.

Good evening, mayor and council. I'm excited to be here today. My name is David Mccleas. I'm the recreation superintendent for the city of Maricopa. Um, I'll be presenting both this item as well as the next item as they're very closely related. But I'll be talking about our our rates policy as well as our rental rate adjustments that we've talked about. Um, just as a quick overview, council approved the current facility rentals policy um, as of November 3rd of 2023. They also approved the current rental fee schedule on December 5th of that same year. And so this is something that we presented earlier this year and we received, you know, some feedback which we've since included. We also received direction from um you that you'd like us to take these to committees. And so we we've brought these to all of our different committees. And so that's why at this point we're bringing this back to you with with that committee feedback as well. Um ultimately some of the goals that we really looked at with these changes was to balance appropriate pricing with utilization rate rates. um increase the utilization of our facilities, increase the number of programs and offerings in the city by fostering growth in the private and nonprofit sector as well as ensure a financially durable structure. Um just a couple things on the utilization rates. Um moving forward, I'll kind of show you some of the data we have on the utilization of our facilities. Um but just kind of what we're measuring is we're really measuring those those more peak times. And so for example, when we show you the utilization of our fields, we're not including, you know, June, July, August because it's not really relevant data. For the most part, our fields are not used when it's 115 degrees outside for good reason. And so we really looked at those, you know, times that would give us meaningful data. So we'll start off at the Copper Sky multi-generational center. Um, looking

at the Copper Sky rooms, we had a 19% and just with these, the data is January 1st to October 15th, but we saw 19% um utilization, most of that being residents, 97% um and then that was 41% of city department and then 50% private individuals and then a small portion of nonprofits. on the multi-gen lawn saw 7% utilization and that's the that's that turf area right outside of the copper sky rooms right next to the aquatic center there the Maroba cultural center which is attached to the library had a 17% utilization um that had a 94% of residents um 42% of that was a city department 47% being private individuals and again some nonprofit and local businesses as If we go over to our Copper Sky Regional Park, our ball fields had a 69% utilization. Multi-purpose fields had a 56%, Ramadan's 8% and the Great Lawn 2%. The Great Lawn is really just the area where all our events are at. Maricopa Maropa goes for all those things. Um 93% again residents, um 30% were city departments, 40% nonprofits, and 20% private individuals. Going over to Pakana Park, our ball field saw a slight increase in copper sky to 73% you utilization, 54% for the multi-purpose fields, and 3% for the Ramadas. Um 21% was local business, 67% was nonprofit, and 7% private individuals. And I also do want to point out these are these rates are strictly what people reserved and paid for um through our system. Obviously, our ramadas are used much heavier than this, but if you know, all of our facilities are are welcome for people to drop in and use, you know, daily. So, if you go

on a Saturday, they're probably all used. Um, but just this is really just purely measuring what people actually booked. Over to Lake View Park utilization, that ball fields had an 81%, the Romana had a 1% utilization. And really that's majority is just our our nonprofit little league had 93% utilization for that. So that that's kind of the summary of where we're really at with utilization. I think a you know if and when these all of these things are approved the coming year will give us really relevant data to kind of compare these rates after you know these changes. And so we look forward to, you know, the coming year to be able to kind of compare. Um, but just a quick overview of some of the rate changes we're looking at. We're looking at reduced room rates, reduced court rates, as well as reduced open space rates. And so with with this, how it reads is a red indicates an increase in fee, green is a decrease, gray is no change. Um, and blue is really what's currently there. And you'll see as I go through this, there's absolutely no red. We're not seeing any increases and we're really looking at at a a decrease to really, you know, help out our, you know, residents who are paying for these through their taxes as well as, you know, nonprofits, local businesses, things like that. Um, so some of the things we're looking at is a slight decrease in our court rate as we did some basic research. Um, you know, we found that courts tend to be slightly lower than fields and so that's why we did a slight adjustment there in comparison to other cities. Um, we also saw a pretty big decrease for the multi-gen lawn. And so for the local business and base rate that we're proposing from $100 an hour to $85 an hour um from $65 an hour down to 55 for the resident and nonprofits.

And the the split between the local business rate is the rate and then the the discount of the resident nonprofit as well as the increase for the non-resident. That's all been established in the the policy as well. Um and so then if we jump over to the great lawn, which is again really the event space, we've proposed the base rate from 200 an hour down to 165 an hour. And so that would go for the resident nonprofits from 130 down to 107. Then we also saw are looking at a slight reduction for the the group ramada which is just the the larger ramada over at Copper Sky on the lake there. Um but that's base rate 40 down to 35 and 26 down to 23. Jumping over to our Copper Sky indoor facilities and those are those two multi-purpose rooms. Um we've proposed going for from a base rate of 65 an hour down to $54 an hour to an $11 an hour decrease and $42 an hour down to 35 for our resident and nonprofits. Um, our fields are really so full is again why we're not really seeing a change there. They're also extremely low in comparison to other cities. Um, but the court saw similar reduction as what Copper Sky saw. So that's why you're seeing a slight reduction on the courts over there.

I have a Can I ask Can I ask question? Sure. Yes, please. Well, is there data on court usage rates?

So, our our courts largely we we didn't really include that in our measurement because we've so limited our our court rentals um on select dates. And so, right now it's really a local league that's using and then we have some schools that use our our tennis courts. Um, but largely almost all of it is is drop in play. And so we're really not I mean we we can pull that data but we really weren't focused on it because we've narrowed that to such specific times. Um but we're looking at expanding some of our pickle ball courts over at Copper Sky. And I think with that expansion and more um available space, I think we'll open it up more to those reservations. And so I think probably next year we'll be a lot more relevant to kind of show hey when's available to rent and and what's that usage at. But it's if you go there all our courts are mostly full all the time again from really that that drop in play.

Okay. If we go over to the library and culture center rooms um we've proposed a lowering of every single one of those rooms. Um, and so for the Redwood A and B, we've proposed from 130 of the base rate down to 108. And that would go for resident nonprofits from 85 down to 70. And then the individual Redwood A and B are very similar to the Copper Sky room. So you see a mirror in those rates as well. Um, the Pine and Maple rooms, we proposed from $35 an hour down to 30. And so for the resident nonprofits, that would go from $23 an hour to 20. Um, and then for the library amphitheater that we've proposed from 100 down to 80 and 65 down to 52 and the atrium from 200 to 175 and 130 to 114. And I also do want to mention where we are looking at with these reductions. Um, our current rates are already lower than what we see in most cities. And so when we look at, you know, market rate, our facility rates are actually already below that. Um, but So really these changes are a reflection of hey we really want to help our residents in a big way and we really want to focus on increasing that utilization and so these are even a further reduction u more than you know the low prices that they already are compared to other cities. Um and then going over to the community center. Um the main room we're proposing from 100 down to 85, 65 to 55, and then the large conference room from 50 to 40 and 33 to 26. And then for the small conference room from 25 to 20 and 16 down to 13. So that concludes all of the proposed rate adjustments. And so from here on out, I'll kind of go through the the policy and some of the recommendations we're we're looking at on that.

Could we stop for questions first, please? [cough] Questions, [clears throat] comments. I know that this definitely meets what we originally had indicated we wanted you to evaluate and look at, but next year I'd be interested in knowing what the usage like, how did it compare to last year to this year? And council member Manf Freddy, did you have comments as well? Continue and then I'll Okay, perfect. Okay. All right. Anyone else have questions at this point? Okay, perfect. I'm curious for next year.

Okay, perfect. Okay, please continue, David. So we we've included some proposed revisions to our policy and all of really the basis, hey, how can we increase usage and as we as a city grow, how can we make things consistent and how can we prepare for that growth as we see more organizations pop up as we see, you know, more competition for our for our limited space that we have. And so um these proposals for a youth and adult recreation league and we've defined that as really an organization that offers a sport league for youth um that doesn't involve you know tryyouts, monthly dues, invitations, recruiting on the basis of talent or ability um which would exclude youth community members. And so exclusion of members of the community would essentially disqualify an organization from these discounts. And these leagues must have at least 75% Maricopa residence. And so the discount for these types of organization, we propose 50% off of the the lowest established rate. And just an an example of that, we we currently have an agreement with Little League and that's a similar rate that we offer them. But obviously, you know, again, as we as a city grow, we start to see more organizations. um we want to be prepared and really have a process in place that we can kind of foster all those organizations. Excuse [clears throat] me. And you see similar types of things like this in other cities. Um for example, Gilbert has a youth coalition that you know different nonprofit organizations are part of. They get a discounted rate. Um this is I think an an easier easier to establish administratively while still preparing again for the growth of the city. Another addition that we're proposing is non-resident business that does not have a local address may qualify for the local business rate if their reservation serves the local population through programming that serves at least 75% Maroba residents. Um we've defined that as really just organized recreational activities that are designed to promote physical, social, and emotional

well-being um by engaging in sports, arts, classes, fitness, crafts, special events, workshops, education, and other leisure pursuits. Um just a quick example of of what that's designed to do. We had an organization named Best. Um very common organization that's in a lot of different cities. They offer really basic programming to that's really affordable to kids that's really meant to be kind of introductory camps, you know, soccer and things like that. Um ultimately they're they're not necessarily a nonprofit. um and their business address doesn't lie with the city and so they'd be subject to our non-resident rate which again is 200% which can potentially be inhibitive um but ultimately for us if they are providing programming specifically to our residents we want to be able to you know further facilitate that and so we want to really attract those businesses that could provide you know programming to our residents. Another addition we're looking at um is relating to sports tourism and our outside tournaments. Um but we say the highest priority of the city is to provide space for local residents. However, the city recognizes the positive economic impact of large tournaments. Um thus tournaments of a certain significant size determined in the allocation guide may qualify for the base rate as opposed to the the non-resident rate. And so tournaments will be evaluated on a case-byase basis with a goal to balance local play with attracting out of town visitors and revenue. And so again, that non-resident rate that's 200% um may be cost prohibitive and may drive potential tournaments to other cities. Um but again, these large tournaments, they serve the city through, you know, an influx of dollars to our local businesses and through that economic development. So we want to have essentially a marketing tool to attract these tournaments. um and to really expand our tournaments that we have.

Um this was when we presented this originally to council. This is actually an addition to that based on your guys' feedback. And so we've um added an additional discount for off- peak hours. And so these are hours when demand is really typically lower um due to fewer people. And so we we've defined that um to be available for that discount um to apply to indoor room reservations Monday to Friday from facility opening to 4 p.m. um unless otherwise designated by staff. And we want to be a little bit flexible with this because obviously we we kind of know where we are right now and where our our lower usage is. But, you know, as we push this out based on approval and as we market it more and as we see a little bit more demand, um maybe we'll find that we start having an increase of demand a little bit earlier. And so, we want to have a little bit of flexibility to, you know, shorten that 4pm or expand it just depending on on need. And so, for that discount, we'd be looking at 20% discount on top of the lowering of rates that we're looking at. Um, this is another addition that we've since added since when we first presented this is really more of a marketing tool. Um, but staff may establish periodical promotional discounts, increase usage of the facilities at staff discretion. Um, quick easy example of this, we could say, "Hey, for the month of March, um, if you book with us at Copper Sky or the library or wherever, um, and your booking could be in June, July, whenever, but hey, if you book with us this month, we'll give you an additional, you know, 20% off or whatever." And so this just allows us to be a little bit nimble um to really increase that utilization and um obviously free up the administrative time of not having to go to council every time we want to do some sort of promotional discount. Um the another addition when we presented the this last it seemed like there was a desire from council to see a little bit more

detailed marketing plan and so we've included some ideas and this isn't necessarily a hard plan. And obviously we want to these are a lot of ideas and we're really going to work over the next year to um as we implement these new rates and new policies to really see what we can do to increase utilization. Some things obviously advertise to reduce rates um increase signage throughout our facilities dedicated to min minimum monthly post to rentals, email blasts, um reservations in our newsletter, social media boosts, um introducing those targeted discounts. Um, we've also added, we're also creating a facility booking brochure for um, facilities across the city. Um, I think that's going to be more of a a tool for residents as kind of a one-stop shop. Hey, I want to book a room. What's available in the city? And so, we're looking at, hey, what are availables um, not only just in our city facilities, but really across all facilities that are publicly funded? And so in this small brochure, you might see um the school districts or charter schools or, you know, global water or the city. And so we really want to make it easy for for our residents to know, hey, there's actually tons of space. Um here's all your resources. And so it'll just tell people, hey, this is where you go to, you know, MUSD's website or ours or wherever for those um facilities as well. Um just as as a conclusion, when we took these to committees, um there was very few concerns. Um most our questions were purely just clarifying questions. Um there were a couple concerns that were bought brought up between the three committees. One was, hey, we've seen prices in the past that have potentially um priced out some of these nonprofits. Uh so hopefully with these rate changes we propose we'll see less of that and it'll help those those nonprofits succeed a little bit more. Um we also heard some feedback again about those

tournaments. Hey, you know when they come in that non-resident rate is high that could potentially drive out those tournaments. Um but that concern brought up in the committee was mitigated when we showed that policy change that's going to allow us to attract those terments by um you know if you're a certain size you're bringing on in that economic development um we can provide you our base rate and so overall committees were were very favorable and um we're really looking forward to seeing these changes.

I have another question please. Um thank you mayor David. Um, one thing that I don't see in this is uh the pool. Um, so I'm wondering are those rates staying the same in terms of pool rental? And then also would the teams that the mayor just talked about being so amazing um qualify as a youth league um because they don't have monthly memberships. Would they be able to get a discount? So all of our pool usage is really separate from these um because our pool is so limited, we've really limited all pool usage to those organizations that have um executed agreements with us. And so all of those organizations such as you know the seals or MUSD or or you know the other heritage all all those organizations using our our pool have agreements with us and so those rates are established by agreement and so it's really completely separate and so the these discounts or you know even though the youth um discount rate wouldn't apply because those are governed by completely different agreement. And so if we were looking at providing a discount to those organizations, we'd have to go look at amendments to those agreements.

Okay. Thank you for that clarification. But city manager, I don't think it's fair that some youth leagues can get discounts and some can't. So I would like us to look into that. It should be if little league can get a discount, swim should be able to get a discount. So I would definitely like for us to look at uniform um application of our discounts. Yeah. I think because it's not about revenue, it's about controlling and making sure you have capacity for everything that's going on. Really, that's what it's about, right? And if we already have space for the swim team, then providing that same discount makes logical sense to me as well. Absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah. And and I totally agree and understand. I think what we look at is just how we move forward with those agreements when they expire and and it's really a case-by case basis as it relates to those expiration dates and what amendment dates may be appropriate. So, we'll look into those for sure. Thank you. Very good.

And just to quickly comment on on those rates for for most of our organizations, they're booking by pool lane per hour. um our pool lane per hour in those agreements are one of the lowest in the whole state that I've looked at. And so certainly um I think we're always happy to look at things, but I do want to mention when we originally got into those agreements, we found that the the hourly rate of the lanes was again one of the lowest in the entire state.

Yeah. And I think that's great, but also you said our field rentals are low too and we're giving a discount to folks for that. I just I don't want little league or baseball or soccer or swim to have an uneven playing field. If discounts are offered, they should be offered uniformly.

Yeah. And I think the ultimate goal from as we're discussing these rates and the the rental policy is enhancing utilization. So if for example, we were at full capacity, then we can't uh book any additional teams, right? So it just depends on on that utilization and and looking at where we can have that capacity for additional opportunities as well because we can't say yes for one and no for another because if we um provide the opportunity then we have to provide it for all and so as I mentioned we will look at those and we will look to see what we can do but until we we do that it's hard to say one way or the other.

Yeah and to that point there was no utilization about the pool so I think that information would be helpful. Um just as conclusion again the rates that we proposed were reduced room core open space or model rental rates. Um some of the adjustments to the rates policy included a youth and adult league discount rate. Um language to facilitate more recreational programming. Um language to facilitate large tournaments including an off peak rate as well as language to offer periodic discounts. um overall increase facility utilization um really help out our local residents and nonprofits, local businesses um facilitate nonprofit growth. Are there any further questions? Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Manf Freddy.

David, thank you so much. Um I appreciate staff coming together and putting all this to together. I mean, when we spoke last about it, I remember the words. I think I don't know if they're exact words, but I said I want it to be as free as possible or as cheap as possible. Um, and I do see a lot of amendment, a lot of changes. The goal of the change is to update the facility rental rates um, so they're consistent, fair, um, aligned with current use and market conditions. I noticed that most of the rates in Pakana Park, Copper Sky, Library, Cultural Center, Community Center, Lake View Park are being reduced, which is what we wanted. nothing's going up. Um, this includes multi-purpose fields, courts, youth fields, indoor rooms, and ramadas. Nothing about the pool yet, but I think we're getting to the point where the school district has to actually build a pool uh because they're taking up most of the time at the pool. And eventually with the success at the high school level, the middle schools are going to want to have swim teams and I mean, it's going to get more and more. So unfortunately, one competitive pool in the city of Maricopa is probably not enough, but the city of Maricopa is probably not going to be building another competitive swim pool in the city, and it's going to fall upon the people using it, I hope, um, to actually build a pool one day, and the schools should build one, the systems. Um, Pakana and Copper Sky fields dropped from $13 to $8, $18 to 12 per hour with youth rates reduced as well. indoor spaces like the red room and red wood rooms, copper sky multi-purpose rooms also decrease larger events such as um as the great lawn stuff, library atrium are seeing a lot of reductions and I know there's people here that like to put on events and that's a good thing. We want to have more of those types of events even at the library as as Copper Sky resident and nonprofit discounts remained in place and non-resident rates continue to follow the established tier

structure. Um, but there are some cases where we'll be able to give the resident rates for the non-resident as long as they're supporting our residents, right? So, if they're coming to the city and they're providing a service that's almost cost-free to residents or very cheap to residents, it's a good thing for us to have lower rates for them. This update improves affordabilities for families, youth groups, increases access to public spaces, and keeps our pricing competitive while still covering operations. We hope I hope um what I'd like to see and I know we didn't discuss and I'm sorry it just popped in my head when we talked about off peak and so maybe in maybe a couple months down the road we can talk more about it or next year. I'd like to see with these off peak if we're doing them for rooms um June, July and August are bad months for fields. I'd like to see if maybe we have off- peak cost for fields on those times because although they're insane, people like to actually play out there um when it's 110, 120 degrees. I don't know why. Um but I know my daughter was out there practicing when she was in sports leagues. So maybe offering a small um discount of that 20% on those months, it might even bring in some crazy people from the East Coast who don't even know how hot it is. Just joking. But seriously, um, you just never know. But, um, so when I look at fees, this is what we wanted. We wanted fees to come down. We wanted people to use the resources we have more and more. And I remember telling the story about I rented the library and two sections of the library. And it was like $900 or whatever it was for that one day of rentals. It was kind of crazy because I was hosting a job fair. Um, and it was like it was a lot of money. But this would bring it down by I don't know like 30% or something like that which is really nice. But I like it. Thank you.

Thank you. Council man Freddy. Additional comments, questions. Yes, Council Member Lurman. Thank you for your work on this and you must like numbers. So, thank you for your talent in that area. Would it be possible for us to get quarterly reports um in the next few quarters and kind of see what's changing and Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean it it simply just takes, you know, putting together the reports and the administrative time with that, but that that's not a not a problem for us to to start doing quarter reports. That would be very helpful. Thank you. Yeah, it doesn't have to be formal. An email report is perfectly fine. Yeah.

Additional comments, questions. I have two additional ones on the specific facility. It looked like you had crossed off the group or mada and that seems like a huge asset for big groups. So I'm curious about where why we did that. Yeah, let me go back to that so I can so that was specific pakana literally the only reason I did that is because the the document that was approved last time had a group raana. Um we really don't have a group ra there's one that's slightly larger but we we give that the same cheaper rate and so just the the small Ramona counts for

I love it. Thank you. I miss the Pakana park. And then second I had a couple uh people call me one called one text and I agree with them the way that it was worded in the attachment that went with the agenda item. it looked like because it used the words that you can't combine discounts and so that was confusing because you first of all have let's just use resident discount and then you have the off- peak discount. So it's my vision that you can combine those and I just wanted to validate that for those that had that question.

Yeah. So, like if if you're if you're a resident nonprofit, like the the established rate is already 35% discount. That's we wouldn't consider that a discount. We would just consider, hey, this is the established rate of resident profits. So, they would get 20% off of the rate of those rate. Exactly. Yeah. Yep. Thank you. I was hoping that's what you were going to say. Any additional comments, questions? Oh, yes. C. Uh, Vice Mayor Wade, real quick, real quick question. This information, of course, kind of slips out out of your control at times. Are you getting any feedback from the community that we're making changes to the prices and what has been done?

Yeah. So, so definitely we're always trying to get feedback from people and so I I know you guys really value public input and so that's one of the reasons why we took that to our our committees. And so this is something we presented to each of our our committees to really, you know, have that public input. And so really that the public input we've received has has been really favorable to these proposed changes. Um, but yeah, certainly us as staff, we're we're always, you know, asking people that use our space, that want to use our space, you know, formally and informally, just, hey, you know, what do we what do you think about our service and everything that way, but certainly um we did get that that input through going through the our um advisory committees

and mayor, perhaps I can speak a little bit to that as well. I serve as the liaison to the parks and recreation advisory committee and they were very excited about what they saw. They were very grateful for the reduction in rates and a couple of the key points that they made that was already brought out here this evening was just the how um the tournament rates and then looking for not only just the the youth and the adult sport leagues to be able to have a discounted rate come in and provide more of those services to our residents. They were very excited about that especially as it's part of our you know strategic uh focus is to to bring more of that sport tourism into our city. This will help towards that end. So they were very very appreciative.

Very good. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you vice mayor. Um would you just go back to the uh copper sky slide one last time? Oh perfect. So the group out of there you did lower the price. I love that. Perfect. Thank you. Any additional comments, questions? All right, let's go to item 8.4. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve by Council Member No, seconded by Vice Mayor Wade. Any additional comments, questions? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Now, do I have a motion for 8.5? So moved.

So moved by council, facility rental policy. Okay. So moved by council member ghetto. Do I have a second? Seconded by council member no. Any additional comments, questions. All in favor say I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you very much, David. [cough and clears throat] All right, everyone doing okay? All right, so Oh, do we have a little bit of a presentation? Rocky.

All right, Rocky. I love that. This is item 8.6 on the fieldhouse. Good evening, mayor, members of council. Rocky Brown, Parks and Recreation. Uh exciting opportunity tonight. We have a new amenity coming on town. We've affectionately been calling it the Copper Sky Fieldhouse, but tonight is your chance to officially name it and uh put a mark on the city. So, a little bit about the fieldhouse just for reminder. So, it is going to house four indoor basketball courts full size. can also be reconfigured to house six indoor volleyball courts or for our pickle ball fanatics, we can have 12 indoor pickle ball courts. There's also going to be additional restroom facilities, a flex space set up kind of like a classroom that's going to be available for rentals. There's a tournament lobby and a desk. And we are right now slated to open it in July 2026. This space is really kind of a reimagining of the old Copper Sky substation with an addition for this large gymnasium. You can see kind of a rendering here. Uh right now we've got a placeholder name on there. Uh but we're excited to come up with an official name so that way we can work on some signage and some branding for the facility. Another angle. Uh this is on the souththeast or southwest side. Uh this is also kind of cool because it shows where the Veterans Memorial has been set up recently and you can kind of see the synergy between the two spaces. Just another rendering. Uh we're excited about putting the Maricopa M branding on it and just kind of making it a focal point because we're going to have a lot of visitors from outside of the community. So we want to just highlight Maricopa and and all that we have to offer. And just an idea of what the inside will look like. So I mentioned four indoor basketball courts. So they can be four individual spaces with those rollup riser um divider screens or it can open up into one large space for bigger

events and things like that. also air conditioned, so year- round use, which is great for the desert. Rocky, on that picture there, I have always been curious about how many people can be seated. Um, because my grandkids are all in sports and tournaments galore. So, I was curious how big ours was going to be in comparison for viewing.

Yeah. So, Mayor, great question. So, there are going to be um bleachers on each side. Uh, one is going to be static on the south side. The north side's going to be removable. Um, and we actually have bleachers that we can roll in and out of because we have plenty of storage and put between the courts. So, we're also anticipating bringing in 500 chairs. So, we can host 500 600 people pretty easily depending on the activity. But when you go out there, I if you've been by Copper Sky lately, the the beams have started going up and the roof and the block and you go stand on the slab and it's it's large. It's very impressive and it's going to be able to host a lot of neat things.

So, we have some potential names to think about uh that we put in there. Right now, we've been referring to it as the Copper Sky Fieldhouse. It's just like a CIP placeholder. Uh another option be the Copper Sky Sports Complex. Uh a third option, Courtz at Copper Sky, or fourth option, the Copper Sky Sports Hall. Or it could be any combination or an alternative. Uh we just love to hear what the council thinks.

So where did you get the names presented? Uh it was actually quite a bit uh of brainstorming and the staff maybe a little chat GPT. Um we ran it through staff meetings. We talked about at the last parks board meeting. Uh done a lot of straw polls. We had a really long list of like 20 names and some of them just just didn't feel right. So, we just kind of condensed into the main ones that were kind of gaining a lot of popularity when we talked to people internally and externally. How much time was spent with the community input? Did the community have any input?

We uh mayor, vice mayor, uh we did not go out and do a public ask u with the community for this. Uh we just came up with these names pretty much internally because we already had the Copper Sky name. So, we're just kind of finding something that kind of went with the Copper Sky Regional Park name because somebody's gonna ask me that question and I want to make sure I know. I got your phone number, right? Sorry. Yeah. Okay. Additional comments, questions. Yes, Council Member Marsh. I'm I'm really glad, Rocky, that you're not naming it for some dead person.

This is a living, breathing building. It's going to be very active, very alive for the coming century. And I really like the name Copper Sky Fieldhouse. All right. Additional comments, questions. Yes, Council Me. I would just Can you go back a couple slides? [clears throat] Keep going back when it says what it's going to have in it. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Yes. that I so I struggle with this because um it says we're going to have courts and it's going to have courts and it's going to have courts and then we're calling it a fieldhouse and those two are not the same. Fields and courts are very different. And so I am concerned that we're giving the wrong impression by naming it a fieldhouse um when it's going to have courts. Well, we already have a courthouse. [laughter] That's a good one. That was a good one, Councilman. That's a good one. That's a good one. It's almost like he was ready for that. He was. [clears throat]

Um, so that's what I struggle with. I I don't think we should name it the courthouse either, though, because we do already have one. It's beautiful. Um, but I I if we now we I just wanted to point that out. Now, we can go back to your proposed names. Um, because I think those are helpful for discussion purposes. And I'm interested in what other people have to say. I just I mean quartz courts courts field house. There's no field. There's no field. There's no field. Um can you describe a little bit more the flex the flex space room space capacity? How many people does it hold the square footage?

Yeah, mayor council member. So it is basically the old kind of conference room that it had as a police substation. We used to do like tabletop exercises in there. I think you could comfortably fit with tables and chairs about 30 people. Okay. It's got a kitchenet set up, but it that's why it's pretty flexible. It could be used for a meeting or if like a tournament promoter had trophies or something they wanted to store in there.

Okay. Very good. Thank you. Um I'll just share um I would like to thank staff and community members who did reach out and share their opinion. Um I it was very helpful. It helped me a lot. I will say that about half of the people that I spoke to had never heard the term fieldhouse in their life. I'm one of them. I grew up in California and I live in Arizona. So, it's not a common West Coast term. It's really more of a Midwest term because in the Midwest, the weather doesn't uh it's not conducive to year round field play. So, they build horouses for fields. Soccer fields, lacrosse, football fields are indoor. But on the west coast, we don't need to do that. So, a fieldhouse on the west coast is pretty uncommon. It it is does happen. There's a few, but not a lot. Um, I have a huge issue with the functionality. Um, I think if we're using this as a tourism destination, and that's one of the big pieces of this is we want tournaments, we want regional people whoops, coming to our area, and we're telling them we have a fieldhouse and they show up and there is no field, it's all courts. I think that's not functional at all and I think it sends the wrong message to our community members. One of the people that serve on parks and recck committee said, "Well, what are we going to name the fieldhouse when we do build a fieldhouse?" Because I would like to propose tonight that we add to our 10-year plan the plan to build a fieldhouse, which is a house with a field in it. I think that would be amazing. Um, so I'd like to save the name fieldhouse for when we actually do build a fieldhouse. Um and the names that I liked is um a few of them um copper. Well, also just a couple comments that I heard is a few people don't like the word complex because complex is used indooroutdoor and it could cause some confusion. I also heard from community members they don't really

favor the term center because it's very vague and non-escriptive and it could be anything and so more of a descriptive name. So, the names that um I favor are Copper Sky Sports Courts or Indoor Sports at Copper Sky. Um this is a good one. Maricopa Athletic Courts at Copper Sky and it could be called the MAC. And if you have the big M on there, Maricopa Athletic Courts, it actually describes what the facility is. It's it's Athletic Courts in Maricopa at Copper Sky. So I really think we need to preserve the functionality of the name and I might have a few more comments but that's my start the Mac.

Okay very good additional comments questions suggestions yes council member man Freddy

you know me well enough that um I was not confused but I wanted to get more input from the community. So, over the last four days, I guess it's been or three days, I've been on social media and I posted out there what a fieldhouse is. I asked tons and tons of people to give me their suggestions. We're not going to call it the Mayor Price Fieldhouse. I don't care how many times people say it. Um, that's a joke, by the way. Somebody posted it. Um a fieldhouse to me is an and normally right a fieldhouse defined as a fieldhouse is an indoor um sports and recreation facility usually large open building designed to support multi-athletic uses under one roof. Cities schools universities have them because they allow yearround activities in a controlled environment. Typically in a fieldhouse is not a football field or something like that or a soccer field. It's indoor courts for basketball, volleyball, pickle ball, or foosball. I don't know what that is. Um, fol or football. I don't know.

Foosball. Foosball. What's foosball? Is indoor soccer. Oh, that's that indoor soccer. Indoor soccer.

Foods. Yeah. Um, tier uh they they can have tier uh turf fields for soccer and football practice, but normally that's on the college level when they're in the cold zones and whatever. um running tracks for indoor walking. That doesn't have it here. Training rooms. But what what's important to me here is that if we go back again in our stuff here, it's a big huge room. And if you can scroll backwards to the uses, the fifth use is not a court, but flex space available for rental. So, um let's say Sequoia Pathway or um one of the charter schools when they start growing more and more and they need places to have um their graduations. It's not sports happening there, but it's it's stuff, right? Not only that, um you know, the mayor might do a uh um state of the city there or something. We have 500 chairs on order for it. Um, I know in in Copper Sky, we just had a um a dinner for or lunch for Thanksgiving, right? And we do these kinds of things and different parties and celebrations and awards ceremonies and these all happen in the Copper Sky um um

gym

gym now. So, it's not just sports. It's going to do more and more things. Um so, it's multi-use rooms for classes, camps, meetings. Um, I think they had a pretty cool Zumba thing, which is pretty cool, but it's not a court. It was just They did that I think the Saturday before Thanksgiving, I think it was. Don't ask me. I don't Zumba, so I don't even know what Zumba is. Um, but it should also have spectator seating and stuff like that. It's a flexible indoor sports complex that supports both organized athletics and general community recreation. So, if we want maximum clarity for residents, the simplest choice, I believe, and I think the mayor mentioned it to me. I I thought it was Copper Sky Fieldhouse. I did because it's just what it is. Nobody knew what a multigenerational center was really before we made Copper Sky multigenerational center and it became everybody knew what it was. Um, and and when you hear multigenerational center, do you think the uh basketball? I don't know. Um, but we can make fieldhouse synonymous with anything we want. Um, so if you want maximum clarity, Copper Sky Fieldhouse is pretty good. I think the Fieldhouse at Copper Sky works too, right? Because it connects it to Copper Sky. Um it connects directly to the existing Copper Sky name which we've spent uh tons of money marketing um and making sure people around the state as well as the country because during COVID there was tons of people coming here um using um our facilities at Copper Sky. It it basically just makes it part of the Copper Sky Sports Complex that already exists and that's the whole thing right. So for me, clean and clear options are copper sky fieldhouse, fieldhouse at copper sky. Um, you could call it this copper copper sky sports fieldhouse or indoor fieldhouse. More descriptive stuff is like you mentioned

um copper sky sports center or athletic center um or indoor sports center. But I keep going back to the fact that we want it to be used for more than just courts, right? courts. We shouldn't put in the name because I know one of the first people that wants to use it wants to bring a statewide karate ch or jiujitsu. I don't know the difference something doing this right wants to bring one of those to the city of Maricopa and it's one of the first options they want to bring. It's taekwondo and Lee Fel would not be happy if you called it.

I don't know the difference. [laughter] I don't I really I don't know the difference, but Taekwond it's something that's really cool and kids are going to do it and adults are going to do it and it's going to bring people from outside the city. So, it's not going to be using a court. So, I don't know. And I think from him he said the fieldhouse at Copper Sky was his what he's been calling it.

Oh, yeah. He's been he's already been marketing it. He said for next year as the field house. I'm just putting that out. Um, but you know, in some of the some of the comments I saw, a lot of it was, "Who cares what the name is? This is probably the greatest thing that's going to be added to the city over the next couple years." I disagree. I think 347 Extra Lanes is better, but um I think it's going to be a great addition to the city and I the name it doesn't matter as much, but I kind of like the Fieldhouse at Copper Sky. Um, but up to you guys. Additional comments. Yes, Council Member Marsh.

Yeah, I think we ought to name it something that enables maximum future flexibility. I mean, pickle ball came on the scene 60 years ago and it's grown to be a big deal. Um, who knows what the next 25, 50 years is going to bring. Um, and I think just something simple like Copper Sky Fieldhouse tags it. It's it's short. It'll save ink. Um, I don't know. You got more ink in the bag. Um, the um I I just vote for Copper Sky Fieldhouse. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Ghetto.

Yeah, I think uh I think what we decide tonight will be important to to consider, but perhaps hearkening back to our Viking roots, which we have absolutely none here in the city, um we can call it the Great Hall at Copper Sky and get away with it. No, I uh I concur. I think the Copper Sky field uh the Copper Sky Fieldhouse would be a fitting name. Very good. Um, just a couple thoughts from my perspective. I didn't mean to miss you.

Okay. Couple of thoughts from uh my perspective. Um, some of you might know I was just in Indiana. It's freezing cold there. I don't know who chooses to live there, but they do. Anyway, I'm just throwing this out as creative thinking. We went drove past thelex. I'm like these using the word plex. How about coplex? No, I'm really just kidding. I don't really like any of those, but there's a variety of things that you can call a big open building, a melex. It doesn't really tell you exactly if there's courts or a field or um [clears throat] when I've gone through and listened, actually listened to people and then read some of the comments on Council Member Manf Freddy's post, people talked about not knowing what a fieldhouse was. I think that's a valid point. But when I started to ponder this, I'm like, nobody knew what Agritopia was over in Gilbert. Like, what the heck is Agritopia? But now it's a destination. People go there for the restaurants. People go there to live there because it's Agritopia. And they now understand what it is. We want to be a destination city. And I feel like we have to have something that defines this place as something different than what every other city has. And when I see um if you go to that last slide, when I see um complex, when I see uh the word um hall, when I see I guess those are the only two word quartz at Copper Sky, I just I don't see anything that makes it stand out. So I too like the fieldhouse at Copper Sky. Now, I want to be cautious. Someone shared with me that the acronym, and I don't understand this, to be honest. I'm going to I'm totally innocent on this. The acronym may not be good in terms of fieldhouse at Copper Sky. Do you guys get that?

Like if it's misconstrued or misspoken. So, I don't know if you put a T in front of it, the fieldhouse at Copper Sky, but if that's concerning to people, I then would go back to Copper Sky Fieldhouse. So, I just think it makes it unique and different. Yes, Council Meor. Um, I just got a recommendation from um, a community member that I think based on all of this discussion is actually pretty interesting and it is champion center at Copper Sky. And I think that is neat. Champion Center at Copper Sky because you can be a champion of any sport. You can also be a champion if you're graduating. Um, it doesn't limit it to a certain court or field or anything in particular, but it does give that athletic kind of, you know, naming because it will be mostly athletic, but it doesn't strictly keep us to athletics. Um, and there's no acronym issues. So, I think it's something I should I just wanted to throw it out there because I just got it and I was like, "Wow, Champion Center at Copper Sky. That sounds cool." Like, Champion Center at Copper Sky. Um, I don't know. I really like that one,

Vice Mayor.

So, it's all a very good discussion. I I think the for me personally, Copper Sky Fieldhouse says what it is, where it is, and what it's where it came from. You know, the idea of copper being something that is special to us. um that it is allowing for more activity from the the youth and the adults that that will perform on the on the complexes on the fields or in the courts and it just comes across as a a more in encouraging place because it gives it offers the um the amount of of activities that we're allowed in one time. I am curious though and this is way out there for a second. Uh, was there ever a consideration for a pool to be placed either there or somewhere near?

No. Uh, mayor and council, no. I don't believe there's ever consideration for a pool at the Fieldhouse Center. Um, when is it something that would be possible? No. Anything's possible, right? Yeah. No, that that would be good for convenience. If pool was a desire, I think maybe locating it closer to the existing pool facility would be more uh beneficial because you could like for instance, if you wanted to teach swimming lessons to a bunch of different kids, it'd be nice to have pools located by each other than spread out over a complex just for, you know, supervisory items and things like that.

So, that's something we could could look at. I had to ask the question. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, lots of great discussion. Do I have a motion? Copper Sky Fieldhouse. Motion to accept Copper Sky Fieldhouse. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Council Member Marsh. Any further conversation, discussion? Yeah, Henry. Um, Vice Mayor, I'm sorry. Would you be amendable to doing it the the fieldhouse at Copper Sky instead of just Copper Sky fieldhouse? That was I actually wanted to do that to What was that? I had actually wanted to include the Okay.

So, do you want to amend your motion? I'll motion to what? To the copper sky. To the fieldhouse of copper. To the fieldhouse at Copper Sky. I withdraw my second. Okay. Okay. Do I have a second for the fieldhouse at Copper Sky? Sure, I'll second. Having a second. Um, any conversation? Any concern about the point that was made to me? What does FHCS mean? I don't know. I don't know. Does somebody know? Are we doing something wrong there? The youth will decide what it means. The youth will

Is that like 67 or something? I don't know. And I don't even know what that means. I I'm still trying to figure that out. We hosted a bunch of middle schoolers and we heard 67 so much I had no idea what it means. All right. So, no concern about the acronym. Okay. Council Lman, did you have a thought? No concern from me for the or we could just go fieldhouse at Copper Sky. I think that's scarier to me because I can't figure out what this but nobody knows what it is. No, let's go back to copper sky. Fieldhouse. Anyway, I have a motion and a second for the copper the fieldhouse at Copper Sky. All in favor say I.

I. I. Any opposed? Opposed. All right. So, it passes on a four to three. The fieldhouse at Copper Sky. All right. That was probably the hardest thing of the night. That's our our split vote. We haven't had those in a long time. I know. All right. Thank you, Rocky. All right. Uh, that'll take us to item 8.7. And mayor, I'd like to go ahead and make a motion to adjourn into executive session for legal counsel. Okay. I have a motion to move into e session for item 8.7. Do I have a second? No. I'll second it.

All right. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? We'll move into e session and we will be back.

We'll rejourn. Council member Nor, will you bring us back into regular session or adjourn the e session and bring us back into regular? Yes. Well, we adjourned in there, right? So, motion to go back into regular session. I think that's sufficient. Yeah. Thank you. I have a motion to go back into regular session. Do I have a second? Seconded by Council Member Lman. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you very much. That takes us to item Got to make sure I'm back on the right one. 8.7. [clears throat] Uh we have a presentation by Jennifer.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Thank you so much. Um so the next two items are related. So I'll give a brief overview and then we'll get into the details of each one. Um so we hired uh it's been almost a year now a third party Gallagher Incorporated to conduct a classification and compensation study uh for all city employees to look at total compensation. So including salary and benefits as well as how our salary structure is put together FLSA making sure we're following FLSA guidelines who's exempt who's not exempt all those details. Um that that set study has now been completed. Um, as we did that last year also in the current budget year, so the council approved 2526 fiscal year, we included compensation adjustments um to be able to take recommendations that are made through the study and be able to make any compensation adjustments that might be necessary for staff. So the this first item 8.7 is to clarify who those salary adjustments or compensation adjustments um are for. And so we have lots of different um employee groups, part-time employees, contract employees, full-time employees. The contract ones are employees like the judge or the city manager, and then mayor and council members. So um the question before you is just um we're asking for clarification of what groups you intended um for that budgeted for those budgeted compensation adjustments to cover for. So

leave that for the first one. Yeah. So, I do have one potential speaker card on this item. 8.7. Oh, excuse me. Yeah. 8.7. Peg Capitals, are you wanting to speak or would you prefer to wait? Okay, very good. Council members, what questions do you have?

Yes, if I may. Thank you very much. Um, first of all, Jennifer, thank you very much for um the the attempt here to be very transparent with this study. It's been long and coming. We've waited for almost a year now as you mentioned to be able to see the results of this and uh again thank you for also looking after our our team, our staff. Um they they put in tremendous work. They do a great job and they need to be compensated for their time and it needs to be at the market value market rate if not above. And so this study is very important to see where we are. And uh I know the stud is not exactly on the agenda tonight, but I just wanted to thank you for taking the time and and the staff to determine where we are. It was never the intention when at least for for me was we made that vote to approve the study to take place in the first place for any type of a consideration for council's raise or compensation. Um, and so just to make sure that that's fully out there and transparent, this is about staff and this is about the contract employees that exclude uh the city council and mayor from that conversation. We want to make sure that they're compensated well for what they're doing. Um, so I just want to kind of make that as a point of why we're considering this here tonight.

Thank you, Council Member Regal. Council member Manf Freddy. Um, to echo what council I'm still chewing the candy, I'm sorry. To echo what Councilman Ghetto just said, I don't think anybody on the council was looking to make a pay raise for council. Um, no one. So, it was good to that we were able to bring this forward because in reality, we didn't need to. It could have just been um administratively taken care of. everybody got a raise and nobody would know the difference unless you looked at your paycheck um and saw it. So the reality is when it when it's brought to us, we're able to look at it and say, "Yeah, we should give our staff raises. We should give our contract employees raises. We should look at not raises but increases. Sorry. Um we should do all that but let's exclude council." So that's a good thing. And we have that ability to do so. So I think

thank you council member Marsh part of the job of compensation management is adjusting for things like inflation and our country has undergone exorbitant inflation in the last n months uh years and um the tariffs aren't helping. Um so I think this is in the right direction. I think our heads are in the right direction and and I like the the way council's thinking on this. Thank you very much, Council Member Marsh. Uh, Vice Mayor Wade.

Thank you, Mayor Mayor. Uh, I believe that what we do is be held be held accountable to the community that we serve. And so, I don't believe that anybody, at least not in the people that I work with here and my fellow uh, council members, have any intention of doing anything that would be inappropriate or not responsible for our our citizens. So that's why that's my my point of view. Thank you very much. So um Council Member Nor, do you want to wait or do you want would you do you have anything to say at this point before a motion?

Yes. I just have a couple questions for Jennifer. Um one, when is the compensation uh Gallagher report going to be available to the public? Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Yeah.

Okay, that's fantastic. And then um along those lines, the uh comparable cities that were so we I just got the report on Wednesday night and obviously was Thanksgiving weekend, but I did read all 80 pages and the comparable cities that were used um for future reference. I think those need to be made available for ourou um discussions because we shouldn't be use one set of comparables for the rest of city staff and the other forou employees. I think that's an unlevel playing field. So, I just wanted to make that point um because I think it's a huge distinction and um I've obviously been on a level level playing field um role tonight, but that's I do believe that um that's important um distinction that we need to make as we move forward. Um so, I just wanted to get on record for that.

Very good. Council Lman, any comments? Council member Wade, you already gave your Okay, perfect. Yes. Do you have additional comments? I fully agree. We [clears throat] should include like um um Globe and such in ourou studies and and compare those salaries. That's a good idea. Unfortunately, um the the theou folks, the people in theou have to agree to that too. And they usually pick the cities in which they want to be not pick by hand like only we get a choice and saying it too, but they get to choose the cities that are part of theou process because they see them as comparable [clears throat] to the salaries they want to get. So when you look at it, they come to us with it too. So they have to agree to some of that. part of the conversation that we have.

I'm sure they would love using Scottsdale, Tempe, and Chandler. I don't think they're going to have any issues with that. And that was used in this study. So, understood. But for Scottsdale, Tempe, and and Chandler, there's Globe, Hila Bend, and well, Globe, Hila Bend were not used in this study. I have the list. It's in the report if you read it. So, you have to look at there has to be a discussion about it with the folks in theou. Yeah, I agree. But I want to make it public so that the folks in theou understand that they have cities like Scottdale, Tempe and Chandler to be used as comparables because that's what we used for the rest of staff. Okay. Yeah. Makes sense.

Very good. Additional comments, questions. [clears throat] I see things slightly different. I think every time come forward, we're we're um working hard to understand what's important and what raises are important and what what um benefits are important. And I indicated I've indicated every year I'm going to fight hard for the everyday staff member. make sure that we're doing the same amount of work, same amount of study, same amount of benefits, and looking at it in a fair perspective and making sure that just like we want ourou um employees to be premier, we want our everyday staff to be premier as well. And if you're not offering um a competitive salary to them, then we're not doing them justice. and I promise to fight for them and I will continue to fight for them. So I see it slightly different. I I feel like both processes have proven out um significant evidence in terms of increases and I I think I'm very content with where we ended up in regards to both pieces of our employee pool.

Yeah. And I just want to clarify, I don't not think that our everyday staff deserve um to be compensated fairly. I just think that our first responders who are putting their lives on the line for us every day, the policemen and the firefighters that are in theou deserve to have the same comparable cities as our regular staff. It's like you can't say all staff gets to compare to Scottsdale, Tempe, and Chandler except our firefighters and police. You only get to compare to Morirana, Superstition Springs, Surprise, I don't know the ones that are like

Are you talking Mus because it was Queen Creek and Queen Creek is one of the highest paying salaries [clears throat] in terms of public safety in the state. And so you talk about Scottsdale, Tempee. I mean, we can go on and on and on about this, but I'm just saying that I feel as though the compensation studies in both pools were very rewarding and very fair to ensure that we have premier employees in both cases. And by the way, I do understand they risk their lives, but we have other jobs that risk their lives as well. I mean, we don't have [clears throat] lumberjacks, but lumberjacks are one of the most dangerous jobs in the in the nation, in the world. And so, I want to be careful that we're not always assuming that the public safety is the most dangerous when there are other day I mean, it's hard to be

Is there another job in the city more dangerous than the policeman? Have you been out on the on our roads when people are driving crazy and they're out there trying to improve our roads? Yeah. I mean I I you can make a face but I think the discussion is is not actually needed right now in that we can have a discussion about in the future but I can ask exactly how much of a increased um contou employees received this year which is I nine huh yeah depends on fire or police I think 9.2 to 9.4

9.2 2 9 whatever it was. Um and the staff is going to be getting about a 5% out of this I think it is. No, nine total, right? And they have a a 4% increase that happened earlier in the year as a raise and then so it basically evens out where they're all getting about 9% um in total for year one.

Yeah. And well, yeah, because police and uhou employees are getting another 9% next year. Um, where in theou they are and in staff won't because we're not doing another compensation study next year. We probably won't do one for another five, seven, 10 years. Who knows? The last time we did it, I think was 17, 2017. And remember, this is simply looking at where we are as a city and where we fell behind on inflationary measures and being able to keep up with um rates of pay that other people are getting.Uus are actually negotiated right now every two years. Um we used to have three and five I think it was I think we had a five once um but we're renegotiating every two years. So when we renegotiate an MOU in two years let's bring to to that negotiation the ability to add different cities. But it's not part of this conversation. No, I but I do think it's important to note that we use different comparables and I think it would have been ideal if we would have included police officers and firefighters and theou positions in this study just to know where they compared along with the rest of the employees. I think excluding an employee group from a study is not okay. I don't I don't think we should have excluded them from the study.

Right. I think that everyone should have been studied equally. That's all I'm saying. Butou employee groups negotiate their pay raise with us and this would have been more data for us to have going forward. It couldn't have hurt. It can't hurt to have more data. And if it showed less, then it showed less. I mean, don't be afraid of the numbers. I I think the timing for the two were just completely different. Um, but I understand your point and it's something to look for in the future. Yeah, I in the future I hope we study all [clears throat] the employee groups, not just everybody but police and fire.

Any additional comments, questions? Do I have a motion? I would like to motion uh that we clarify that the annual budget discussion on compensation adjustments was intended to include all employee groups including those with a contract but not council. Very good. And does that include the mayor and vice mayor position in council? Yes. Yes. Just to clarify because there are two separate groups. I'd second the motion and we have a motion in a second. Do we have any additional comments, questions? Okay, seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Oh,

Peg. I'm sorry. Take that back. We have a motion in a second. We'll come back to it. [clears throat]

Thank you, Mayor Council. I want to approach this from two different perspectives. The first one is timing. We can spend almost two hours in a special meeting talking about a proposed $125 million park. We've spent less than 20 minutes talking about compensation across the board and leaving out two major groups. The other thing is I'd like to see if you guys would be willing to approach this in a term that we're all familiar with, but in a new context. I'm talking about DEI, discussion, evaluation, and input. None of us have been able to have a public records request to see this study. So I don't know where anybody falls. I don't know what kind of numbers we're talking about. I don't know where the starting points was for the two groups that are in theou. Were they behind the eightball to start with? And even if they got a raise, are they still behind the eightball in a comparable city? I agree with what council member Nor said that all the comparable cities should be on an even playing field. Mayor, I agree with you too that there are a lot of dangerous jobs, but these two groups work 24/7, 365. When most of us are running away from this stuff, they're running towards it. I was recently in a position where I was able to talk to a retired firefighter. There are more deaths from suicide in public safety right now than from line of duty deaths. That's a scary thing. And if we're going to ask these people to put themselves in harm's way, and it's not just the officers, it's their families, it's their friends, it's their city, it's their residents. The other thing, and I've heard every one of you mention this in the last couple years, we don't do evaluations anymore. I would like to see council be true to the comments that you've made from this day and at least bring back evaluations for your three contracted employees. I think it's important me as a voter, me as a taxpayer, and me as a

former person that's sat up there amongst you. I want to know what my staff is doing. I want to know what the results are. I think the other thing, we can't talk about compensation until we also talk about efficiency and that we're delivering the best services we can. I had an uh experience recently that I participated in the MAG transit study and several conversations identified that we're not serving our senior population with transportation needs because we've got one person doing the job of probably two or three. I think you need to build that into the equation. This isn't just about compensation. We have an amazing staff and you've heard me say this from the deis and from the microphone. We have amazing people here that go above and beyond for our residents. But without some quantifiable data, I don't understand where you're coming from. I want to make sure that everybody is on a playing field. It's wonderful that I can do a public arts request tonight for a report that'll be due tomorrow. But this is exactly why you should have work sessions or at least additional presentations at council so your public sees where their tax dollars are going. The other issue is recruitment and retention. And that's let's talk about succession planning. If you've got somebody that's already behind the eightball or not comparable marketwise, how are we ever going to recruit the people to stay here once we get them here and get them trained, keep them here until they're ready to retire? And forget succession planning. Who wants to step up to a job where they have to take a cut in pay compared to somebody of a lesser rank with a lot less responsibilities?

Thank you very much. Thank you. Yep. I appreciate that. Any additional comments based on the speaker card? Very good. I'm pondering. I'm sorry.

It's a lot to ponder because we want to keep focus on what this agenda item is. This agenda item was meant to be transparent in ter in terms of who all this uh compensation adjustment goes to. And so a lot that was discussed um is outside of this particular um agenda item and we want to be cognizant of what the purview of the city manager is compared to that of city council. Um salary adjustments are always part of the city manager's purview and how the study is handled is a matter of the city manager's purview. We approve the budget. we know how much we feel comfortable in terms of designating toward a compensation study um increases in the future. We that's under our purview. So, I just want to be careful that we're we're mixing a lot here tonight and um the point of this agenda item really was to be transparent in terms of who all this applies to. So, I really appreciate the motion made by Council Member Noir. And at this point, I've forgotten who seconded Uh, Council Member Man Freddy second it. Um, any additional comments, questions?

All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you very much. All right, that takes us to our last item, agenda 8.9 and 8.8 as well.

I this kind of strange that I keep missing things. Thank you very much. Oh, yeah. Jennifer, go for it. Yep. So this continues on with uh the information from the Gallagher study. So as I mentioned um the study looked at total compensation. So not just salary but our benefits as well. And so when looking at how we stack up to the market with our benefits um we're doing great. Um with the exception of one category which is for our newest employees, those who have been here for zero to three years, their vacation acrals are lower than um comparable cities. And so the recommendation before you tonight is to eliminate that zero to threeyear acral category and move to a zero to fiveyear because we have a 3 to five right now. And we'll keep the same acrruals that are in our three to five year which is 112 hours annually and a maximum carry forward of 160 hours. And so um that's what's before you and it's part of our uh personnel policies which are approved by council. And so that's why we brought that piece back. Very good. I have no speaker cards on this item. Council, any questions, comments?

It sounds Sounds good to me. Sounds good to you. All right. Do I have a motion? Motion. Motion to approve by Council Member Mars. Do I have a second? Council uh Council Member Gtle has seconded. Uh one last chance for comments, questions. Seeing none, all in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? That motion carries. All right. That now takes us to our last item. This item is to select a vice mayor. So, what I would like to do is just spend a minute letting you know what a because I think it's important. Being the vice mayor is not an easy job. Um, and uh I can speak as a vice mayor for Mayor Price twice and all the stuff he handed me. And um you get invited to a lot of very important meetings, a lot of very important events, and you there's as a mayor, you can't possibly attend them all. And so you really need a vice mayor that you can count on um in a pinch. And Vice Mayor Wade has definitely done a stellar job doing that. Um every time I call, in fact, there was one week I called him to fill in for me three different times, and that was in one week. and he was able to do all three times. But of course at the next city council meeting he had to give me a little jousting for that. Um but he has been exemplary in regards to filling in and um always making sure that all of our organizations, all of our meetings are um the people that represent those meetings feel important because if I'm not able to go, we make sure that the vice mayor goes. And you've done a great job. I appreciate all that you've done and um given that I want to turn it over to you to say a few words yourself.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And and given that, you know, I totally understood the duties that were before me when I took the took the nomination to become vice mayor. Uh it has been this is actually the second time that I've had that position. Uh and I I love the city of Maricopa. So for you to call on me to go and do something to represent Maricopa is is a given. There's no doubt about that. That's I'm going to do that. And I like the fact that people represent the people recognize that we are represented. We are there. We are in the room. I think I shared with you I have not missed a meeting of the city council since I've been first elected to the city council. I may have been in the car talking to somebody talking to us. I might have been on a plane, but I have not missed a meeting and that's pretty good for 11 years. Well, appreciate it very much. I hope know that the next person that comes on board is going to do even more uh with the capacity that he possesses. And I'm I'm really really happy to be able to make that nomination. And for that, if you don't mind,

uh if you have a nomination, I'm I'm happy to hear it. I do. nominate Fence Man Freddy to be the new then vice mayor. Okay. Do you want to take it? Well, uh, let's get a second first. Do I have a second from Council Member Marsh? Uh, mayor, uh, Council Member Man Freddy. Is this something that you're willing to accept?

As long as it's not as eventful as the last one. The last time I was the the vice mayor, Christian Price resigned and I had to step into those big shoes um until we put um Nancy in that position as a mayor. Um and I'm joking about that. If something happens, of course, I'm willing to step up and take care of it. Um and currently, if you ask me to go to things with you or instead of you, I'll do that also. I've done it over the last year um for things including transportation. Yes, you have. And I think the next year is going to be a whole heck of a lot of transportation issues and things that we might face and talk. So yeah, I I I would accept it if my council wants me to do it.

Okay. Any further discussions on this topic? All right. So I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? And that motion carries. Congratulations. Congratulations. All right. That brings us to the end of our meeting. Thank you all for hanging around and hanging in there. My shirt